Welcome to bonktown...

Some days are better than others.  Some days you feel like king of the world.  Some days you feel like something less than the poop on the bottom of your shoe...duck poop even...from The Greenbelt on a hot summer day.  Most of my races (I use that term loosely) usually end up like poop on my shoe.  There is a 98.974% chance I will puke at the finish of every race.  Allen Greene really captured the hurling spirit in this shot from the Crazy 8s last summer.  Again, I apologize to all the families waiting to photograph their loved ones crossing the finish...that's what happens when you sprint past your threshold ;)

Today marked the beginning of my second week of training for the half.  I haven't been myself lately.  Over analyzing EVERYTHING.  Not much sleep.  Not much food.  Being a hypoglycemic vegetarian, food has always been my best friend.  I eat approximately 937,287 times a day.  Apparently my decision to cut out some of the excess wasn't the best idea.  I was only scheduled for 3 easy miles today.  I met up with my friend, Jamie, and followed her Mdot through the streets of Kingsport.  She's a beast, BTW...a real motivation and true blessing in my life.  We went up, down, ran some flats and then...up...way up.  I felt my legs go numb....damn.  I felt my stomach churn.  I began to suck all the oxygen from the atmosphere.  I got dizzy.  I bonked bigger than snot. 

Well, I didn't pass out....YAY!  I kept running what turned out to be a pretty good pace...but boy did I feel sick.  Really?  Bonking on a 3 mile run...totally humiliating.  I'm typically very good about food choices and NEVER have a problem eating enough.  I felt horrible and my confidence got spanked.  Luckily, Jamie is AWESOME and lifted me up.  She really knows how to take a bag of crap and pick out the good stuff ;) Time to pull my head out of my butt and start taking better care of myself.

"You just have to tell yourself that it's gonna hurt and prepare for it."  Jamie hit the nail on the head.  Sometimes it sucks.  You can't breathe...you get sick...you might even puke.  The same goes for situations we might face in everyday life.  Just because I had a rough day in my running shoes doesn't mean I'm going to quit running.  Just because I had a rough day doesn't mean I'm going to stop living. 

I love the feeling I get when I push through a miserable run...and I love the feeling I get when I know I'm stronger than what's trying to hold me down.