Weekend in Review: Running

Well, I meant to publish this on Monday, but life gets in the way sometimes.

I was scheduled to run 7 on Friday, 4 on Saturday, 20 on Sunday, and off on Monday. I woke up late on Friday and was a little weary of running that night with the storms moving in, especially with T. I figured out that the best plan would be to knock out the 20 on Saturday morning while T was with her dad, get the 4 out of the way on Sunday afternoon, and run 7 on Monday morning instead of taking the day off.

I started out my Saturday somewhere around 5am. The weather was perfectly cool with some nice wind. I was too lazy to drive to Draper to meet up with the group there, so I opted for 20 solo miles around Norman.  This was actually the first time I’ve ever ran more than 18 miles by myself. Things were feeling pretty good for the first 12 miles or so, other than feeling really sluggish from eating junk on Friday night. There’s a TON of vegan junk food out there, and I don’t recommend eating any of it the night before a long run. I started to slow down a bit in the second half, but more out of laziness than fatigue. Total time was somewhere around 3:36. I finished with no soreness, only a mild appetite, and feeling very sleepy! Luckily, T was game for lunch at Panera followed by a 3 hour nap that day.

Sunday’s run was much easier and much more fun. Red Coyote was hosting the first annual Runtoberfest 5K. One of the awesome things about Red Coyote is that their events welcome walkers and runners of all abilities, and also kids and pets. I’ve even had a request for Charlotte to come out to PPR. Since strollers were welcome on the course, I pushed T, I parked a few blocks away and ran to and from RC so I could get the extra mileage needed to bring me up to 4 miles for the day. We lined up a little too far back, so getting her stroller through the crowd at the start was tough. We were so far back that it took us over a minute after the gun to cross the starting mat. I spent the first half mile or so trying to work our way through the crowd so I could start running at race pace without hurting anyone. I made it through the mob just in time for a long, uphill slope into the wind. Even a small hill with a slight breeze makes for a tough run when you’re pushing a 50+ lb. stroller. Our chip time was 25:56, which I’m happy with considering the big crowd and having completed the 20 mile run the day before. Plus, T did not throw any shoes, clothes, or food overboard as she usually does. Double win!

After the run, there was even more fun to be had…friends, music, and food! Brooks came out and set up a nice little VIP area for the racing team, so I had a place to put the stroller while we hung out afterwards. They also provided us with snacks, drinks, and private port-a-potties stocked with cute toiletries, including Brooks toilet paper. T chowed down on grapes, brownies, and Halloween Oreos. I hadn’t had a good sugar binge since my 20 miler, so I stopped at Green Goodies for some cupcakes afterwards.

Monday’s morning run went just like Friday’s…I turned my alarm off in my sleep and woke up about 40 minutes too late. Not good. I set out that evening to put in 7-8.  Things were going great until right before mile 3. T’s dad works on campus, so we stopped for a few minutes so she could see him. She told me that she needed to use the bathroom, but since she had just went I thought that we could wait. Lesson of the day: Toddlers cannot wait. We hitched a ride home, ate, and went to bed with a 4 mile debt.

Total running distance for the weekend: 26.7 of 31 scheduled miles

This week’s schedule:
Tuesday-5
Wednesday-7
Thursday- 7
Friday-7
Saturday-5

Sunday-12
                            





Leslie Driskill is a scientist from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. You can learn more about her running adventures by checking out her other pages. 

https://pharmahub.org/members/6085/profile
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Leslie-Driskill
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=yqkPrs8AAAAJ&hl=en
https://twitter.com/Leslie_Driskill
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3484-2794
http://veganleslie.blogspot.com/
https://www.quora.com/profile/Leslie-Driskill-1
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=yqkPrs8AAAAJ&hl=en
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lesliedriskill/
https://www.alltrails.com/members/leslie-driskill
https://soundcloud.com/user-907900105-88781924


Location: Oklahoma City, OK, USA

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