12 miles of FAIL

I've been sitting on this one for a couple of days because it was just too painful to even think about.

After a week off for my birthday trip to Vegas I tried to do a 12 mile run over in Capitol Hill and the surrounding neighborhoods along Lake Washington. An astute reader would already know that I failed.

You know the old saying (proverb?) "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me" - Side Note:I wouldn't be me if I didn't add that Klingons add a third line to this one. Fool me thrice, prepare to die! - well shame on me. I thought I could handle the hills. I thought I could get it fixed in my mind where I was going and where I needed to be. I had a route that I had planned myself, so there should have been no surprise turns or anything. No, I once again got completely lost, and I ended up frustrated, angry and two miles short. My 12 mile run turned into a 10 mile run full of bitterness, anger and disappointment.

I should have reconsidered what I was doing right from the start. I was antsy to get out there and get moving. The Cowboys game and the Seahawks game both had me pumped up with excitement, but once I actually got everything on, the SPIBelt packed, and my butt out the door all the energy just evaporated. I was standing on the corner waiting for Grendel to find some satellites - Side note: Grendel has been having a bit of a problem finding his sats quickly, and I'm becoming a little frustrated with him. It's my fault for living downtown near all the tall buildings, but he's still taking way to long. - and I thought about changing the route, cutting it short, or just not going at all. I kept to the original plan because I was just so interested in actually seeing the cemetery and the two parks that I missed last time I tried the route. I should have followed my gut.

Everything was going fine for the first five miles or so. That part was all a copy from the last time I went that direction, so I knew where I was going and where I was supposed to turn. Easy. I went through the Arboretum again, but it wasn't as exciting the second time around. Once I looped back onto Lake Washington Blvd, things started to fall apart. I knew there was a chance this would happen, and I brought my iPhone with me just in case. I had both the route on the imapmyrun app and Google Maps to help me out. One tells me where I'm supposed to go, the other tells me where I am. It would be nice if one of those apps did both, but they didn't so I'm not going to dwell on that. I checked the route to see where I was supposed to go next but discovered (too late) that I couldn't zoom in to get a real street view. Actually, I couldn't even see street names for some of them, so I had to switch back and forth from imapmyrun and google maps to get the info I needed. That took more time than I wanted it to.

Once I found my location, I got on the move again, but soon enough I got confused. Was I supposed to turn on Louisa? That seemed sort of familiar. I was positive that the street I was supposed to turn on started with an "L," but I wasn't so sure about the rest of the word. So, I broke out the maps again for a quick (meaning really slow and really long) consultation. I finally decided that I needed to turn on Lynn, not Louisa, which was still a few blocks away. So off I went again.

I think the main thing that killed me was just sheer tiredness from all of the damn hills. If for no other reason, I am not going over there again just to keep away from those. I know I need to prepare myself for some hills on the marathon route, but it is no fun at all to constantly feel like I am running up hill.

I stopped for a GU at six miles and again consulted the maps. Every time I stopped to check the maps it took about five minutes, and the stops started coming more and more frequently. I saw where Lynn turned into some other street (started with a "D") and knew I was on the right track, but it went straight up. Then I finally found Interlakken Rd, which conveniently goes through Interlakken Park. There were no sidewalks for the first mile of that, so I had to run in the street. Lucky for me there weren't any cars either.

Interlakken is where the will to fight through it just left me. I thought I was through the park, so I took a right down a street. When I say down, I mean straight down. This was the kind of street that would have been great on a bike, but it actually had bumps on the sidewalk to give you traction. Think of something just between smooth sidewalk and stairs. It was STEEP, and when I got to the bottom and didn't recognize a street name I went to the maps again. Five minutes later I realized that I wasn't done with Interlakken yet, and I was going to have to climb that hill to get back to the right part. I did, but I cussed the whole way up. Then I went through the park and ended up on Galer.

And that's where I just gave up. I hate to say it. I don't want to be a quitter. I want to push through the hard things and get to the easy chocolately nougaty goodness on the other side, but I was done. The map consultation got me nowhere. It said there was supposed to be a street that I should go up, but I saw no street. Plus, it was really hard to tell which direction was which. The map says go north, but which way was I facing at that moment? I didn't know, and my iPhone isn't one of the fancy new ones with a built in compass. I picked a direction, ran a block or two, and consulted the phone again to see what changed. I'd call it a big mistake, but really, nothing on that run beats the mistake of just starting out in the first place. This was just another little mistake that left me wanting to scream. I decided right then that I was not going to consult my maps anymore. I was just going to pick a direction and go until I found something familiar. So I went through a nice little suburban neighborhood and a school and a playground, all the while thinking "when am I going to find a street I know?" I finally spotted a building I knew from earlier, and at that point I knew where I was. More importantly, I knew where I needed to go to get out of this mess.

I stood for a moment looking up the hill heading back to my part of town. I probably could have run it. I could have at least tried. I didn't. Like I said, I had already quit about two miles earlier. I wasn't going to make any extra effort to get up that hill. So I walked. I'd like to say I walked fast, but I've looked at the pace chart. I didn't walk even remotely fast. Once I got to the top of the hill I was willing to run down, slowly. I just wanted to be home. Eventually I got back to my neighborhood. I tried stopping off for a post-run smoothie, but the one I went to was already closed for the day. I didn't deserve one anyway for quitting the way I did.

I've read that everyone has a bad run at some point. I hope this qualified as mine. I hope there's not another one, a worse one, in store for me between here and the marathon.

Pace Chart
Mile 1 - 11.42
Mile 2 - 10.47
Mile 3 - 10.23
Mile 4 - 11.07
Mile 5 - 11.01
Mile 6 - 11.30
Mile 7 - 12.53
Mile 8 - 13.00
Mile 9 - 17.03
Mile 10 - 11.44
Mile 11 - did not happen
Mile 12 - did not happen

Total running time was 2.02.08. In reality, with all the stops to check the maps it was more like 2 hours and 45 minutes.