The 10 Miles that was almost 9.6

So 10 miles was on tap for Saturday.  Friday night, I wanted to curl up and go to sleep. This cold was hitting me hard. Instead, we went to the Park Tavern and saw Kevin Griffin and Ed Roland (of Better than Ezra and Collective Soul, respectively) perform.  It was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed it.

Saturday I woke up from a nightmare of a boa constrictor around my chest. Upon waking up, my chest felt tight and hard to breathe. 10 miles was not happening.  Putting my head back on the pillow was.  I didn't do a lot on Satuday but rest.  Between 4 and 8 I felt good.  But by 9 I felt crappy again.  Yay! D felt the same way.

Sunday came and we got up and got bagels and went to the grocery store.  We both knew we needed to get the 10 miles out of the way.  He suggested some route, but between the running on sidewalk, and running far from the house, I didn't really listen to his route, and decided to run by home.  If I couldn't run the whole 10, I would just sit on the steps and wait for him (he had the key).  I was still concerned with the mental block I get at mile 10ish.

We warmed up by walking up Nemesis Hill. I thought he was going to go back down (like I always do) but he started heading to German Shepherd Pass.  Considering how heavy I was breathing going up Nemesis, I just followed.  At the light post, I started running.  He passed me and I didn't see him for awhile.  Most of the first 4 miles were uneventful.  Since we started late in the morning, almost everyone was at church. No one was out walking and most cars were heading to one of 3 churches by our house. 

On the 3rd lap (each lap was 2+ miles) I stopped to retie my shoe.  I saw D with water. Apparently he stopped by the house to get some. He said he had long stopped sweating and was tired.  I was still feeling pretty good with the exception of having to cough up my chest to get my  throat moist.  At mile 7ish, I still felt good.  I thought about running another 6 (instead of 3) so I could cross off my 3 mile run.  I decided to just go with how I felt. I noticed that mile increased by 1 minute. At mile 8 a little boy fell off his bike. I stopped to make sure he was ok (he was).  Starting back up seemed impossible.  I did it but another 30 seconds to that mile.  At mile 9.6, I decided I was done.  I was going to call D and tell him to come pick me up.  My legs were barely moving.  I then thought about the time it would take him to get to the car, and come get me...In those 4 minutes I could be home, or at least done with the 10 miles. I decided to keep going.  Finally I was done, coming back down Nemesis Hill. At mile 10, I walked the rest of the way home.

Then I went back to bed.

It probably wasn't the smartest thing to run being sick. But I needed to know I can run 10 miles.  I have such a mental block with it, that I need to know I can push through it.  So this week is 5,3,5 and 7.  Right now, I don't think I could run 1 much less 3 or 5 or 7. We shall see.