It has been a very long running week.  Will someone PLEASE, oh please remind me that I should not change my running schedule??  I thought I’d learned my lesson, but I apparently have not.  I believe this now qualifies for insanity.

Before I get too far on this complain train, I need to first talk about how great and wonderful my husband is.  He is NOT training for a marathon.  He has NO interest in running a marathon.  He’s “been there, done that.” Even still, he heads out with me and runs my long runs with me.  I do so much better when he’s there.   I feel like the run is more doable when he’s there. When I’m down and getting confused, he’s there with encouraging words and keeps me from losing it.  I really don’t think I could have made it through this 7th week of training without him.  Heck, I don’t think I would have believed I could do this if he hadn’t believed I could first.  For that I am so grateful.

Now…  Back to what I started earlier…;-)

My husband has season tickets for the still undefeated Houston Cougar football and ESPN Gameday was on campus this weekend (yep – the one where Lee Corso dropped the f-bomb!)  We piled in the car and drove down for the weekend.  The original plan was to get up and run Saturday morning.  Did you notice THAT word again?  ORIGINAL…….  After thinking the plan through, we both decided Saturday morning wasn’t the best idea.  Remember, ESPN Gameday was gonna be on campus.  Part of the whole reason for going to Houston was to see Gameday.  Sooooo…  I decided to run my regular easy Friday run on Friday, my MONDAY run on Saturday, the 14 mile run on Sunday and take Monday off.  WHEW!  Simple enough.  I figured no harm, no foul.

Ran the easy 4 miler on Friday – GREAT!  Felt good.  Got to Houston and ran Monday’s 5 mile run on the treadmill in the student welness and recreation center, which, by the way is REALLY nice.  It was okay.  I liked giving my knees the break.  I was also glad to have kept to the new schedule even if the ‘gym’ didn’t open til 10am.  WHAT?  College students!

Alright, come on Sunday.  On Saturday evening, I got all of my gear ready to go, relaxed a little bit and went to bed early.  I woke up the next morning and it was 70 degrees with like 85% humidity.  I am not kidding.  It felt like hell – seriously.  I started off already somewhat defeated because of the weather.  I was born in Houston.  I lived in Houston for 27 years.  I go back to Houston pretty often but I just could NOT deal with the humidity.

We started off okay.  There is a great hike and bike trail near the UH campus.  Too bad half of it is under construction and too bad the city’s web site failed to mention this…  In steps great husband and his weirdly good sense of direction.  Maybe it’s not weirdly good.  Maybe mine just sucks so much that comparatively, his is weirdly good.  Who knows?

Anyway.  We made our way from the Brays Bayou trail through Herman Park and on to the Rice University ‘loop’.  We had to loop twice, which i don’t like but it was shaded and we were running along in front of some fancy, fancy houses so it was interesting.  My husband kept reminding me to enjoy the scenery.  I was enjoying it.  I was just so freaking hot and bothered (NOT the good kind) that i could only sort of grunt at stuff.  No loud grunting, though.  That would be a violation.

I was chugging along alright until about 12 miles and I started falling apart.  The sun was beaming down, the humidity had just taken ahold like a portable steam shower, and I was running out of energy.  I’d had two chocolate Accels, but I don’t know that they helped me one bit. (We decided after the run that we hadn’t had enough water during the run.) My husband was getting further and further away from me and I just didn’t have anything left.

Shortly after 12 miles, my throat felt like it was closing in on me and I could not take a breath.  I was gasping for air and  got scared, which I am certain made it worse.  I was gonna die right there on the street.  I started to cry, which I’m also certain made it worse.  “Relax, relax, relax”  I kept saying it over and over in my head and VOILA!  AIR!!!  I heard a man on ESPN radio later  say that every football player has that moment when they’d buy a glass of air for $8…  Well, today, I would have payed ANYTHING for some air.

We ran along til we hit the magical 14 miles.  It was magical because I feel like it was a miracle that I made it.  I think I drank a gallon of water/Gatorade after the run.

What did I learn?  Running in the heat and humidity is crappy and I needed one of those water belts today.  Oh, who am I kidding?  I needed what I got:  a miracle.

At the suggestion of my dear wonderful husband, I will repeat this 14 mile run next weekend instead of increasing to 15 miles.

So here’s what this week was like:

• Monday:  5
• Tuesday:  5
• Wednesday:  4
• Thursday:  off
• Friday:  4
• Saturday:  5
• Snday:  14