The schedule said 16. The Valley Forge Loop (5 miles) over and back to the gravel river trail (2 miles) the river trail out and back (6 miles) finished with 1.5 miles out and back on the SRT. *Sigh*.. my mistake was probably in starting with the loop. It's all hills. Even the parts that appear hilly are mostly slow inclines or declines. I started out in good spirits. It was a nice sunny day and a few degrees warmer than yesterday. About 3 miles in to it my brain went into a downward spiral and it was all over.
It started with the loop, sure. But then I started thinking about how I had to be back home by a certain time today. And at the end of the loop I still had 11 miles to go. What if I got to the end of the river trail and needed to walk back... I wouldn't make it. I had plenty of time... I knew that somewhere deep down but couldn't resurrect that at the time. Another issue was no mile markers. The loop has no markers and when I get in this mood I ususally say ok go to the next marker. Then I arrive and think ok not so bad try another one.. and so on and sometimes I have to do that the whole way and sometimes I get into a rhythm and forget them.
So I stopped at 5. Not to worry. These things happen. I just have to hope they don't happen on race day. The key now is to get back out on Tuesday and have a great run! I left the park and went to the gym for a weight training workout to make up for being a slacker on the course. The endorphins from that did help boost my mood. :)
Tomorrow is another day :)
No comments:
Post a Comment