8 miles

I ran the last 5 miles of the Half Marathon course earlier this week and today I set out to run the first 8 miles. Sure, the forecast called for snow and rain, but that didn't deter me. I figure, I have to be prepared for any type of weather, because you never know what it will be like on race day. Besides, rule number 1 is:  There are NO EXCUSES!

Me and Francy (who is not running this Half Marathon and just wanted to offer support) decided to meet at the Metro close to the start of the run this afternoon. We both had that look of "what the heck are we doing out here????" look in our eyes, but we are equally crazy committed and we took off. We decided to run the first few miles to warm up and then throw some intervals in the mix whenever we got tired. In the first mile, I realized that perhaps I had hydrated too much and we had to take a detour to find a bathroom. The first 4 miles were uneventful. It was after that that our run started to fall apart.

At exactly 3pm the wind picked up and it started to snow/hail and pelt our faces. We passed by a store and the sign that was outside was picked up by the wind, headed towards us and landed right on Francy's foot. She started to limp after that for about a half mile, but then decided to just run through the pain. The course wasn't bad at all, minus a couple of moderately steep hills. It started to get colder and more windy at about mile 7, but we knew we could get through the last mile. That is right when we had our second incident. At 14th and Harvard Street, NW, we had the crossing signal, but this genius decided to back up after he had pulled out too far into the crosswalk. We tried to hurry and run behind the car before he hit us and there was a car coming up on the side of the road and it hit Francy. She tumbled to the ground in what seemed like slow motion and then started to crawl out of the street. It was the worse feeling ever to see it happen and not be able to help. The nice couple got out and talked with us while we determined that she was just scraped up and bruised. She was able to move her shoulder, elbow and hip, so we walked the last mile home. Whew! What a run.


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