Up Hill Girl. She was living in a flat road world.

So I'm a little late getting to the blog from the weekend run, so I apologize for that.

I ran on Friday after work with Tia. She and I were able to leave work one hour early at 4pm, so we decided to take advantage of this extra hour and squeeze in a run before our Friday evening plans. Tia was merely loosening up before her 15 mile on Saturday, and I was knocking out 2.5 miles, as per my schedule. All went well. We made it back to my house just before it began to pour down rain. Gotta love that.

I did not run on Saturday - only cross training in the form of weight lifting, along with a lot of THINKING about running (sort of counts, no?).

As I mentioned previously, I decided to scale back my running to mesh with a half-marathon schedule that I had in fact been following incorrectly. I found myself (gasp!) ahead of schedule and decided a good old fashioned reward was appropriate. I rewarded myself with two weeks of shorter weekend runs. This meant I was to run 5 miles on Sunday, instead of 8 (which would have built upon the 7 from last weekend).

Now, I did not have confidence in my running and was more than happy to "fall on my sword" when it came to running matters. In fact, I have approached this sport with zero expectations of myself and I'm surprised that I'm still at it. I have maintained a humble approach throughout the last 2 and a half months because - I'll be honest - I really didn't think I would have the skill to stick with it.

That being said, I have been surprised by my small abilities here and there, and have felt somewhat accomplished at the end of a run or the end of a training week. While there have been numerous pitfalls, I have kept myself focused for the most part and have been relatively pleased with the progress. I have never approached a run imagining that it would be easy.

Until Sunday. Grave Error. Only 5 miles I thought to myself. Piece of Cake. I have ran more than 5 miles 3 separate times in the past month. This will be no problem.

"Wrong" isn't even strong enough a term to begin to describe how totally and completely off-mark and un-prophetic my image of myself running those LONG five miles would be.

I started out fine - it's a downhill run to the trail. Even as I hopped onto the trail, I felt OK. It wasn't until I had been running for about 8 or 9 minutes that I realized I wasn't moving very well and I felt sluggish. Normally by this time I would have found my stride and would have at least gotten into a groove. Not on Sunday. Luckily, about the time I realize this, I spot a family whose child goes to the same day care as Emelyn. This allowed me to at the very minimum wave as I ran past them and be sure to keep going until I was out of their plane of vision. Sure - it's childish - but they know where I live and that I couldn't have been running for too long... Hey - it got me through the remainder of my first mile.

Gasping for breath, I stopped to stretch briefly and began running again. I decided to shave off two blocks of my six mile loop in the hopes of cutting out a full mile. I ran down University St instead of going all the way to Agate so I could still gauge my distance from home, but make an educated guess as to my overall distance.

University is a new street for me to run on. I have only driven on it, but not for a couple of years probably. I can't remember the last time, in fact. I had forgotten how enormous and beautiful the homes were on that street. How they were built probably anywhere from 1950-1930. I had also forgotten how they were built on a freaking serpentine sort of hill that mocked me as I ran up and down and up and down.
While this did not help me get into my running groove, I was able to cling to a positive outlook: At least I was gradually introducing hills and so what if it didn't go so well the first time.

By the time I staggered up and down University Street, I REALLY needed to stop and stretch. I had already been passed by two running groups who were no doubt training for something in their fast looking UO garb, as well as what appeared to me to be an old geezer. I'm not certain as to how old because all of the up and down had affected my vision - or at least I was certain it had - and I couldn't really look ahead and focus on any one thing or person.

Stop and Stretch, I did. On the steps of a building that looked like a very narrow, tall, church. I haven't a clue what kind of building it is, but the steps to the front door were the exact height and width I prefer for calve stretching. Small victory.

I was off and gasping - I mean running - in no time. I eventually arrived to 13th, where I'd turn and begin heading toward home. I struggled with pushing myself to run further. One part of me wanted to keep going, head downtown, and just see what happens. The other, smarter side luckily prevailed and I began to point the tug-boat in the right direction.

Interesting little side note. I was so miserable during this run that during that short silent space between songs on my iPod, I kept hearing the sound of two dogs barking in the distance. It took a while for me to realize that the sound was in fact my breathing. I wondered what I actually must sound like to people walking by. I'm surprised someone hadn't called an ambulance for me.

Back to the story: Well, I'm not exactly sure what happened, but once I arrive back at 19th, where I'd normally jump back onto the bike path that cuts all the way up to 24th, I somehow missed it and found myself running on Amazon Parkway. Now - those of you who are locals can appreciate that there are no sidewalks on either side of it. There are only bike lanes - and I was thankful for at least bike lanes. I have no idea how I ran past the bike lane and mistook a major roadway for it. I can only plead absolute and udder exhaustion.

After a while, I noticed that some idiot (like me) must have done this before because there was the slightest evidence of a path in the tall grass. It seemed like a good idea at the time to take said path. That is, until I start to worry about the possibility of snakes in that tall grass. I am certain there must have been some in there somewhere and I was thankful for them - I finally found my groove. There is truly nothing more motivating than fear to get me running.

I decided it would be safest for me to get off of the roadway as soon as possible, so at my first opportunity, I ran through a parking lot towards Willamette street. On the other side of Willamette Street was College Hill - my neighborhood.

Just as I made this move, Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl" begins and - after 50 minutes of running and feeling like crap - A voice somewhere in my head tells me that I should run the hills of College Hill before I go home. I will be darned if Bill Joel is not my own personal runner's version of crack. I must have been out of my mind, but I did it. I ran up one hill, down another, up one, down one, and so on. These hills were not serpentine. Oh no. They were steep, serious, don't take any crap from anyone hills. Greg made me ride my bike up them once and I went so slowly I actually tipped over. You get the point: NO mercy from these hills.

I did it, though. Not sure why. I suppose because I was checking out the Marine Corps Marathon's website and reading the course description last week and it mentioned that there are hills at the beginning of the marathon. I guess the sooner the better to get used to it.

As I ran up and down them, I wondered how I looked doing it. Sort of a dubious thought - I know - but I felt like I was really squatting down a lot with my legs - a la Inspector Gadget when he would go uphill. I don't know. It's bizarre where one's mind goes while running.

I believe I completed a little over 5 miles, but it could have been more.

I rested on Monday and Today did 2.5 miles on the treadmill, followed by a lot of stretching and an ab workout. The run today was OK, but I do despise running indoors now. The treadmill, the mirrors, the TV's - they don't have anything on Amazon Parkway and the possibility of a snake bite!