Well after a week lollygagging around nursing a blistered foot I made the Saturday session. I didn't do a lick of exercise for an entire week and was going out of my mind. I haven't gone more than a few days without exercise in over a year and half since I started my big diet. The blister had pretty much healed up and I felt good enough using a blister band-aid and a lot of anti-blister powder in my socks to give it another go. Still not trusting my new shoes for longer mileage, I reverted back to my old pair. It was a back down week after last weeks 18-miler. We walked 12 miles at Hospitality Point.
It was a pretty rough day for me. I woke up incredibly cranky and feeling generally irritable. All the lights were too bright, the music was too loud, the other drivers were too slow, it was too early, complain, complain, complain. I dragged myself out there and just tried to avoid people which is usually the best strategy when I'm feeling surly. The first few miles, I completely babied my foot and hung way back of the group. At one time I was actually bringing up the rear, grumbling to myself. I'm usually one of the fast ones towards the front end of the pack. Finally about 4 miles in, my pride showed up and decided to catch up with Christine and the others that I usually walk with. The only problem was that they were already at least a mile of ahead of me and they are no slouches when it comes to power walking. I turned it up and started overtaking some of the others. Got to my first aid station and was feeling good so I decided to skip it so I'd have a better chance of catching my normal group. More miles and then the second aid station. Still feeling good, had plenty of water decided to skip that one too. Big mistake. The nice thing about aid stations is that there is food, salt and water there. Somewhere between the second and third aid station I started bonking out. Bonking means just losing all your energy and feeling really tired. I hadn't been eating my normal snacks during the walk and now I was behind the food curve. Pace slows and then I happened to run into Coach Peggy who was making her rounds to check on her flock of walkers. She gave me some salt to replenish my electrolytes and walked with me until the next aid station (Mile 9ish) where I proceeded to eat two handfuls of M&M's, some pretzels, an energy bar and some red vines. Fortified with sugar, I bolted out of the gate for the final three miles. I never caught the other group but I got damn close. The last half mile they were in striking distance. I think I could have caught them if the course was a little longer but c'est la vie. Average for the 12 miles was right around 15 mins/mile. Respectable considering how poorly I started.
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