6.5 miles (1 walking)
Simply Not Meant to Be Strides

I have a half marathon next weekend.

Thanks to this little rolled ankle the furthest I’ve run in the last month is about 9 miles.  The good news – I had done 10, 12 & 15 milers the weeks before the Disney incident.

That said, I had the best of intentions to try and get a 10-12 miler in on Saturday.  The way the day panned out I didn’t get my chance to bust a move mile until about 5pm.  Here’s what my dash read as I pulled into the park to run:

Perfect running weather, right?

The recap:

Mile 1- This ain’t so bad (running a shady 1 mile stretch)
Mile 2- Oh this isn’t great, but isn’t bad – 10 miles no problem
Mile 3 – Bye bye shade, hello dry heaving – maybe 9 miles
Mile 4 – Pit stop to bathroom to soak my head in water & regretting the granola bar I ate earlier – 9 is still reasonable
Mile 5 – Close call with a biker on the trail, dry heaving continues
Mile 5.25 – Ignorant teenager not looking where driving on bike and literally misses me by inches.
Mile 5.5 – Ankle gets twitchy and tweaky and I walk
Mile 6.5 – I pass my car in the parking lot and get in and drive to my aunt’s to recover the babes.

This is my aunt.  I get my fashion sense from her.

I’m not super familiar with the words, “I quit”.  It’s not something I do often.  But let me tell you, it was like the universe was clipping my run mile by mile and I finally relented and just went home and drank a BUUUUNCH of water and Nuun to rehydrate.  Plus my aunt practically read my mind and had a fabulous dinner ready for me (and my kids totally chilled out it was a miracle)

I took Sunday off to give my ankle some rest, but really it’s because it was my favorite holiday – the start of regular NFL season.

Since my aunt is a rockstar she watched the boys so I could head over to Big Wang’s to watch the first half of the game with my cousin and uncle.

I am such a fabulous niece that I repay her by doing really nice things like putting this super creepy doll in places while she’s out of town.

Super creepy doll…

I tried hiding it behind her pillows but the cleaning lady moved it.  This is much better than the time I strung it on a belt like a noose and hung it in a closet.  This has been going on for years, I just got in on the action about 5 years ago.

Think my family’s weird?  You’re right.

Last night we gave each other sage advice like, “Don’t give a baby or a Siberian Porcupine as a present”.  We’re just awesome like that.

Did you get to stick to your weekend running plans?
When do you declare it too hot to run?
Do you have ongoing family jokes or pranks?