Cool Those Legs!

Today was my first chance in a while to train with the team, and it was good to be back out with TNT again on cold but not bitter early Saturday morning. Ann gave our mission moment, talking about the death of her son at age 19 from leukemia. She held up a photo of him in his high school football uniform – handsome, strong, healthy, and his life seemingly ahead of him. It is so unfair that those so young get ill and die, and I hope that in my lifetime, effective cancer cures will make that outcome a very rare exception to the rule.

I went 11 miles today, not counting the initial lap around Swan Lake, running I would guess about 7 miles of it. This makes it (a) my longest journey on foot since last January 13 when I walked (and ran a little of) the Arizona Marathon (b) the most I have gone in 2009 (duh!) and (c) the most miles I have probably run in my life in a single day - since my three marathons were all either entirely or predominantly walked. It took on the order of two hours and 20 minutes to go 11 miles.

The other people there today were mostly exclusively runners. I was the only run / walk person, and the other two walkers and their coach were only going about 6 miles, so that was why I decided to run so much more this time. Despite walking quite a bit of it, I was able to stay close to one group of runners and on occasion join up with them for a bit and have some teammates to talk with. Also, at different times, our run coaches ran or walked with me a bit. Hopefully, I can add some stamina and run more.

One of my mentees, Nicole, did 12 miles today, which is the furthest she has ever run. We are all proud of her!

When I got home, I felt like I am going to have fairly sore legs from all the running, so I made the decision to take an ice water soak. It was a decision reluctantly made. Evidently the little white angel was too optimistic about me not needing ice water baths until I get to higher mileages. Running so much uses my legs differently enough, I suppose, to cause more soreness. So I dumped a large container of ice into the bath tub, filled it with cold water, and stepped in – then sat down. I stayed in for 12 minutes, which was plenty – it was cold enough that there was still un-melted ice floating at the end. Hopefully I will be less sore tomorrow as a result.