My first DNS..

Boy am I behind in my posting.  I sit down and then I get distracted by the tv or trying to fit in some walking and running around the hood.  Don't worry I am still alive!

Two weeks ago I was very excited to run my new favorite local half marathon the Navy/Air Force Half in DC.  I ran the inaugural race last year and thought it was a really well ran and supported race and I knew I was going to run it again this year.

Prior to that Saturday I knew I was going to have to squeeze in 17 miles that weekend.  So all week I was debating on just tacking on the extra miles after the race (but what do I do with my bag that I checked?) or heading home and then tacking on the a extra miles there or I could do the half and then on Sunday run 17.  I had almost convinced myself by Friday that on Saturday if I felt it I would run the extra in DC and then be done with my mileage.

On Friday night I head out to meet up with an old work friend.  We had some Ihop and chatted for a few hours.  When we went to leave I heard the horrible sound of a flat tire.  You've got to be kidding me!  It is nearly 8 at night.  Ugh..So I call Theresa to let her know what just happened and at the same time this really nice kid/young man can walking over asking if I had a flat.

He heard the same thing I did.  He then asked if he can help me change it.  Oh my!  How lucky am I to have this nice guy willing to help.  So this kid proceeded to change my tire.  I will say that I have been really lucky.  I have had many flats and there is usually someone nice around to help.  I have never actually changed a tire, but I feel like after watching so many of my tires get changed I may be able to do it myself.  He proceeds to change his tire while I am holding my iphone up using the iphone app to help him get some light.  Thank you Iphone! I told him that I would be a funny story about the blonde girl who just held up her iphone then whole time and didn't actually do much with the changing of the tire.  He was very nice and didn't laugh.  So he puts the donut on and I am off.  Now my donut didn't look the best either.  But it was drive able.  I knew there was no place that I could get to that would help me with my tire on a Friday night so I headed the 30 minutes home.

I knew that my race plans were over.  There was no way I was going to continue to drive on 95 with a donut.  I guess I didn't have to worry about squeezing in my miles..I could run either on Sat. or Sunday and get my 17 miles in.

When I woke up the next morning my donut was flat.  Really!?  Another flat.  Luckily I had some fix a flat and I only needed the tire to work for a mile down the road.  Once I pulled to my mechanics place they took my car pretty quickly, plugged the tire (thank you for not needing new tires) and offered to do my inspection since it was due this month.  So I guess things did work out.

I knew that Saturday was the perfect morning to run, unfortunately by the time I left the car place I knew I wouldn't be able to squeeze in my long run.  I didn't want to run in the afternoon sun!  So looks like Sunday was the day.

Sunday I woke up and headed over to my new favorite long run place.  It was a perfect cool morning for a long run.  I will say I did not set any speed records but there was something magical about that run.  I just felt like I could go on forever.  I felt really good for a my long run.  There was some walking towards the end of my 17 but I am ok with that.  My legs felt pretty good.  I am so glad that I finally had a decent long run.  I was starting to think that there was no way I could run a full next month since all of my long runs have been feeling horrible.

So I guess what started out like a horrible weekend for running turned into a super weekend for running!  Sometimes you just never know what life is going to throw at you.

That weekend was also the 16th anniversary of my car accident.  And in honor of it I ran 17 miles on a leg that you would never think could run a mile.  Ahhh life is great!