Should've brought a Sherpa

The hills are alive with the sound of whining. Perhaps I was hallucinating, but I could've sworn I saw the family VonTrapp fleeing the Nazis over the weekend. I did all of my running in Cincinnati while visiting to participate in my sister's wedding. (Congratulations Sarah and Mike!) While there, I had a startling revelation. Columbus is REALLY flat. I ran three miles on Saturday morning and the entire run was either uphill or downhill, there was no flat at all. I was really surprised at my inability to run at a regular pace on the hills. I knew it was going to be tough but I didn't think I'd need a Sherpa and bottled oxygen. I thought I'd be able to leg it out. I was wrong.

After my three mile fail, I adjusted my intended route for Sunday's fourteen mile trek. Now, I'm not trying to make excuses but I had a few things working against me:

1. Hills - even though my Sunday route wasn't as steep as my Saturday route, the whole thing still rolled
2. Late start - I didn't get to bed until 2:00am so I didn't start until almost 9:00. I was already fighting the sun and the rising heat
3. Exhaustion - I was busy all day on Saturday
4. State of mind - I really didn't want to be out doing the run to begin with so I was having trouble talking myself into any additional exertion.

Long story short, I had the worst pace for a long run that I've ever done. I walked more than I ran and added an hour to my normal time for that distance. I was really dissapointed with my performance. Laela even informed me that she was thinking about getting in the car to go look for me because it took me so long.

To see just how crappy this run was, here are some comparable distances with times and paces. (Yesterday's car wreck of a run in red)

Date Distance Time Pace

23-Nov-08 17.1 mi 3:29'16" 12'14"

11-Jan-09 16.07 mi 3:09'31" 11'47"

3-Oct-08 15.23 mi 2:57'39" 11'39"

3-Aug-08 15.12 mi 2:54'07" 11'31"

9-Aug-08 14.37 mi 2:46'19" 11'34"

15-Dec-08 14.09 mi 2:38'15" 11'14"

9-Nov-08 14.06 mi 2:39'24" 11'20"

19-Oct-08 14.05 mi 2:39'27" 11'20"

26-Jul-08 14.04 mi 2:45'42" 11'48"

28-Jun-09 14.01 mi 3:22'32" 14'27"