9 miles (instead of 15) 3.4.12

I met Adrienne to run today.  We were going to run 15. I knew my knee was going to be the deciding factor for how far I ran. It was. I stopped after the first 9 mile loop. Adrienne went on to run without me to finish the run.

We walked once on the downhill. It was quite a steep hill and I knew my knee wouldn't appreciate trying to run down it. That was our slowest split.

Around the 4 mile mark, Adrienne stashed waters for us under some leaves. She was too good to me.  We drank that water at 4 miles and I think passed it again near 7 and picked it up and ran with it. We threw away the bottles closer to mile 8. I had never been to Sewickley before and the houses were so nice. I kept admiring the houses and forgetting about how challenging it might be to run.

The first 3 miles or so were pretty rough. I felt like there was no way I'd finish the workout. Then after 3, it felt so much easier.  That has been the case recently too.   The first few miles just feel like they take an eternity to run and once I get past those, then everything flies by.  Perhaps this is why sometimes short runs are so challenging.

My knee had a constant pain the entire time I was running so I considered running more than 9.  But I knew as soon as I was done it would be bad. I was right. As soon as I was done running, I stretched. Then walking the 20 feet to my car was torture. My knee hurt so bad.

It felt pretty cold running. I only warmed up around mile 8 to think I would get rid of my hat and just wear my ear warmers.  I had on a tank, long sleeve shirt, plus light jacket. It's amazing how other days with the same temperature, I have on fewer layers and am hotter. It is so hard to judge what to wear anymore. The more I run, the better I thought I'd be at judging, but the more I run, the more I realize that it varies so much.   While we were running, we saw a runner in shorts. She was wearing a hot and a coat but was just in shorts.

A few times Adrienne said she was pulling me back but each time she said that I thought how I was speeding up to keep up with her pace.  Running groups are so good because I always push myself more than I thought and it feels like less of a struggle than when I go slower on my own.