"You're a runner now"

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was scheduled to do my second and last 20 miler on Sunday. It turns out, my body had something different in mind. I woke up in the middle of the night with a full, tight feeling in the old belly and thought I might hurl. That feeling got even better as night turned to early morning and things started going (and flowing) south. Yup, GI issues all through the night.

When I awoke around 7:00, things had pretty much stabilized, but I had this run to contend with. Had I not planned on running with a friend at 8:00AM, I would've rolled over and got back my few hours of lost sleep. Instead, I felt guilty about cancelling at the last minute. I also knew I wouldn't have time this week to get another long run in, but I still waffled. I worried about pulling a muscle because I was dehydrated. I took a shower to see if that would make me feel better. I ran up and down my driveway in a t-shirt, boxers and running shoes to see if I could pull off a run without a major GI catastrophy. Finally, I decided that I would feel lame if I didn't even try to do this run. Worse case, I thought, was that I would show up, run for a few miles and then quit, knowing that I did what my body would allow.

So, I filled my water bottle, packed my bottle-holder-pouch with TP, and went to meet my friend. We ended up running for somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 miles over 1:23. I really tightened up and walked the last quarter mile to avoid any type of injury. (My two calf pulls were pretty closely tied to dehydration.) During the walk, things kind of fell apart as cold set in and my body hit a wall.

I got home, showered long, and crawled into bed feeling like crap, but very pleased that I got a run in under less than ideal circumstances. Turns out I had a 101 fever.

Just before I dosed off, I mentioned to Mrs. VTR that I was happy I got the run in. She replied, "Only runners go out at crazy times like this. You're a runner now."

Reading through this blog lately (running on newborn-induced sleep-deprivation with a chest cold, or with shredded hammies, or even if you can believe it, in a blue sweatervest), I'd say we're all runners now.

Feels good, doesn't it.