The hardest run ever.

First off, let me just say that this is dedication:

It is 4am and I am up blogging before I leave for the airport.

But it's because I had to blog today, I didn't want the weekend to go by and for my memory of yesterday's run to be somehow made better by time.

So, yesterday, there were 6 of us who met at 6pm at Shelby Bottoms Park. I had been drinking water all day in anticipation for the long run, but had only had a subway sandwich for lunch around 12:30.

We started off at a great pace, I was feeling good... chatting with the others. One of the ladies that was there ran ultras!

One guy was kind of the leader. He talked the most, was the funny and overall, was a pretty nice guy. Whenever a bike whizzed up close to us, he always yelled at us to move over to the right and he had us jump fences, etc (construction is going on at the park, so they close some parts of the path. Oops... I didn't notice that sign said No Trepassing, Park Ranger. This guy was like the King of Shelby Bottoms and had the running/racing past to warrant respect. So, the first time he told me to relax my shoulders around mile, I didn't really mind it. The 15th time he told me at mile 11, I was ready to punch him in the face. It was like, he thought he was my coach or something. I appreciate advice on things. But, honestly, I'm not looking for running form advice while in a group run for 12 miles. he literally kept telling me to relax and drop my shoulders (dude, I know I run stiff, I LIKE it that way), and when we approached a hill at 11 miles, he told me to do something with my arms to help them propel me up the hill. I was annoyed. More so annoyed, because he kept saying things like... "good job, Amy, you're doing a great job." He constantly singled me out to compliment and it really made me uncomfortable. Like, dude, I may not look or run like Deena Castor, but I'm doing okay for myself.

Regardless, This run was tough. I started feeling it around mile 7. I was fatigued. I was sweating (although surprisingly the temp was amazing for an afternoon run) a lot and just feeling generally fatigued.

I have never felt so sick and so tired after a run, ever. I drove home (about 30 minutes) feeling like I was drunk. I got home at 9 pm and I felt like I had just been ran over by a truck. I knew I had to eat, but I just couldn't stomach anything, I ate a bite out of a m&m cookie (it was handiest), but I could barely swallow it.

I've never been so low on energy in a run before. It totally sucked.

It was 11.6 in about 1:42. More later, I gotta eat some breakfast and head out. I just had to get this at least started...