It Rained on My Parade

Yesterday’s long run was slated for 7-9 miles. About 4 miles into it, the rain started coming down, and I called it quits.

I guess quitting because of the rain was just an excuse. I think it was really due to the fact that I had only slept for two hours the night before.

On Friday night I went to bed at 11pm and planned to arise at 4:30am, which would have given me a good 5 1/2 hour sleep–or so I thought.

My teenage grandson woke me up at about midnight to tell me something. It was okay because I was able to go back to sleep. Then about 12:30 the phone rang and I was still able to go back to sleep. At 1:00am the phone rang again and my sleep was totally interupted. I laid there until 1:30 tossing and turning, so decided to get up. Hence, my two hour sleep.

I was up for the rest of the night and by the time our 5:45am run started, I had already been awake and piddling around the house for over four hours.

I’ve run the Tulsa Run six times–1988, 1989, 2003, 3004, 2006, 2007. Yesterday’s training run included part of the Tulsa Run which includes a lot of incline. You would think that I’d be used to the rolling hills, but the lack of sleep had me dragging butt and panting as if it were my first time doing hills. So by the time the rain came, I found it to be a good excuse to quit.

I’m not a quitter! Honest! But lack of sleep will do strange things to the mind.

BTW, the rain was just a sprinkle that lasted about 20-30 minutes. Everyone else was loving it. A quote from the Runners World Tulsa blog, “Oh so good was the cool fall morning in which we ran 9 miles mostly on the Tulsa Run course. A little rain spattered us along the way and it was good training as they won’t do a rain delay on race day either!”

I won’t be able to run with the group next Saturday because I’ll be competing in the Oklahoma Senior Olympics. I’ll be running the 50 meter track, the 200 meter track, and the 5K road race.

Somehow I’ll have to make up the distance I missed today.

Keep good thoughts and prayers for me next Saturday.