Ouch ouch ouch

First of all, upon the suggestion of a fellow Nestie, I added our Nike+ challenge to my page, which you see to your right. In case it's early in the morning (which it is for me, don't ask why I'm up at 9.00 on the only day I get to sleep in), I am Duffinger. SJE (who is insane) and Marcusrun are not Nesties, so we're pretending they don't exist until the Nestie who set up the challenge kicks them out of the competition. Trust me, I know it's hard to pretend that they aren't there when SJE has freakin' 86+ miles to my 42, but like I said...he's insane. So yeah, that's that. UPDATE 8/1: Crazy man SJE is no longer in our challenge. Darn. You guys shoulda seen his mileage! And I don't know what's up with Marcusrun...I'm guessing he's not uploading his runs. But either way, yours truly is in FIRST PLACE!

We had a pretty intense run yesterday. I say intense because horrible isn't really a great word to describe it. Horrible is a great word to describe how I feel right now, but not the run itself. The course was amazingly beautiful. We started at the Jemez Dam, went down to the Santa Ana Casino, then back to the dam. The views of the canyons and mountains were breathtaking...but so were the hills. In all it was 12 miles, but it felt like a million. And unfortunately, in order to get to the start, you had to drive the entire course. I was driving up there thinking oh my god, I am going to die out here.

I don't think it would have been too, too bad if my knee wasn't bothering me, but it is. In fact, I'm pretty sure I lost a kneecap somewhere along Mile 6. By Mile 10 I was seriously contemplating laying in the middle of the street and waiting for the next car to run over me...by that time several others in my group had finished and were headed home, so I wouldn't be laying there for long. If it weren't for one other runner - a girl I hadn't met until that morning - I'd probably still be laying there (because let's face it, everyone would have seen me and most likely would have driven around me).

The best part of it though was finishing (and I say that lightly because by the time I got to the parking lot I was walking/limping the last mile, which was STRAIGHT uphill) and going to the Hyatt Tamaya resort for a day pass to their swimming pools and hot tubs with another runner who's currently injured and had to sit this hellacious run out. We spent the rest of the morning swimming, laying by the pool sipping margaritas and relaxing in the hot tub. Today is a recovery day, so I'm going to just bum around the house. Fun times, man.

Also, speaking of fun times, I'm doing something so, so shameful. Something I thought I would never, ever do. I'm not running next weekend. I have a long run (well, it's a cut-back week) scheduled and I'm ignoring it. Granted, I'll probably walk triple that distance in NEW YORK CITY(!!!) but I will not be out there with my fellow Albuquerque Fitters. Yep, Duff is going to the Big Apple. My best friend in the entire world moved out there last year and I'm finally going to visit her and spending every available second with her is WAY more important than running my little buns off. So, look forward to lots of pictures of Duff and BFF-Duff soon. :)

I think I'm nuts

I'm thisclose to running the San Antonio Rock n Roll Half Marathon on November 16. Four weeks after Denver. I love San Antonio. I love my friend who lives out there. Apparently I love running (I know! Who'd of thunk it!).

Eesh, I've lost my mind. And to all those people that said running was the cheapest sport I could get into - YOU'RE nuts! This stuff is EXPENSIVE!

My late resolution

Normally I hate New Years Resolutions. HATE them. Why wait until one specific date to change something about yourself? Why can't you make a resolution any day? So, with that in mind, I made a resolution today...technically, it's my '08 resolution (per nikeplus.com) so I guess it'd be a late New Year's resolution. Anyway, my resolution is to run a marthon in 2008 or else I will have to run two in 2009. Yeah, it's kinda cheating because I'm already planning my race, and ideally I'd like to run two next year anyway (maybe...we're going to Jamaica and that cut out a chunk of time I could have used for a marathon vacation) but I figured "what the heck" and set that goal anyway. :) So, here's the link:

http://nikeplus.nike.com/nikeplus/?l=runners,goals,350722871,1624272324

I have arrived

A few weeks ago someone on the Runner's World online forums asked the question "at what point do you consider yourself a runner?" Almost automatically I started firing off a response that was along the lines of "What are you talking about? I put my shoes on and I run. That makes me a runner." But I stopped myself. Up until that point I was still pseduo-making fun of myself for doing it. I took running seriously, but I couldn't be serious about it, if that makes any sense. I mean, let's face it. I'm a slow, fat girl who moves slightly faster than a walking pace. Ok, maybe that's harsh, but it's not far from the truth. I felt wrong - dumb, even - calling myself a runner.

But something has happened to me over the past few days. I knocked out my ten miler on Saturday and that was such an amazing accomplishment. Technically we were done at 9.96 miles, but I told the coach I was running with that I had 0.04 left and I wasn't stopping till my watch said 10.00. Granted, that only required me to run across the street, but wow! Looking down at my watch as it beeped to alert me to the 10th mile was amazing. While we were running, somewhere in our 6th or 7th mile, my coach asked me if I had heard what our group organizer said earlier that morning. Considering that I was late to the "meeting" part of our run (what else is new?) I hadn't. It turns out that he said that those of us who completed that day's 10 mile run would be just about gauranteed to make it to our race goals. The only reason we wouldn't make it would be due to injury...not because we are not capable of doing it. Is it true? I have no way of knowing until later this year, but heck - talk about motivation!

Anyway, I can say it now. I'm a runner. I may not be fast. I may not be a size 0. But I run more days than I don't, and that is an awesome, awesome feeling.