Last November I wrote that I’d run one of the toughest courses in my life...a hilly, unrelenting hiking trail in Sand Run Metro Park. I’d encountered three hills twice as long as and steeper than anything I would run in the North Chagrin Reservation. It was only a 40 minute effort, but it thoroughly enjoyed completely kicking my butt. I swore I’d never return.
I’ve often suggested that if men had the babies, there would never be more than one per family...we’d remember the pain and knowing we couldn’t do it twice, would stop. I thought this running course was like that for me and I’d be smart enough to never return. Like women and pregnancy, I seemed to have forgotten all that agony and since I was in Akron picking up my daughter Heidi, decided to go there for a run. I changed in the car and began the run with a nagging feeling that something was wrong. I turned off the main path for a hiking trail when it hit me...hard. I climbed from that point and continued to climb for a period of time that converted my legs to Jell-o and made me feel like I was on Everest. I reached the top and began to do something that resembled running again, but quickly found myself slipping down the mud-covered trail to the bottom. It hit me then...this was going to happen a bunch more times and I was going to want to puke.
I ran these ups and downs for thirty minutes...my brain was functioning on low oxygen and I was not thinking clearly...because I’d decided to make it a one-hour run. Had I been thinking clearly, I would have realized that, at the half way point, I’d be turning around and repeating the hills I’d just slogged up for a second time. I was in that happy, euphoric, blissful, endorphin-fed place that makes reasoning illogical...so I continued to screw up. I could have taken the trail that parallels the road back to my car...like everyone else in the park was doing...but I again headed up the hiking trails, taking 2 minutes longer to return than it had taken me to hit the halfway point.
When I finally reached my car, I was drenched in sweat as I would be on a sultry July day. I was also having troubles standing up. I was in pain...but I suppose it would be that ‘good pain’ I’ve mentioned before...the kind that doesn’t break you, but makes you stronger. I had definitely left my comfort...and sanity...zone (they go hand-in-hand)...and had done what you have to do to improve performance. I’d done it by accident and wouldn’t repeat it, but it reminded me of the workouts I design for elite runners who face this challenge two times a week. God bless them...and women who deliver babies. I’m going to try and be smarter the next time I drive anywhere near this park and NOT get out of my car to run...or if I do...remember not to take the hiking trails that go up and down the hills. Thank you Sand Run Metro Park...you’ve destroyed me again.
Run Duration: 62 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 140 bpm.Calories burned during workout: 1050.
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