The Saddest Run.
I was talking about running mantras yesterday and I told my best friend that a lot of the time, my running mantra is just chanting the word “eggs” in my head. Because eggs are my usual post-long run meal (cheap, easy protein.) I know that the more I run and the less I walk, the sooner I will be on my couch eating some delicious egg scramble.
Yesterday, I bundled up and headed out for what I assumed would be a miserably cold run. Weather.com said 34 degrees, but it had been 18 when I was on my way to yoga in the morning and so cold I wanted to cry. I layered on 2 pairs of leggings, white running socks, green soccer knee socks, long sleeved tech tee, t-shirt weight hoodie, and my light running jacket with the zippered pockets. Hoping that would be enough, I headed out. (spoiler alert: it was one jacket and one pair of socks too many layers.)
I don’t know if it was a result of tired legs from a busy weekend of working out (bootcamp, soccer, step aerobics, yoga) or the fact that this was my longest run since October, but I had to stop to walk quite a bit. I told myself that it didn’t matter, that it was more important to get the miles in than to try to speed through it, but it was frustrating nonetheless. I was running the outer perimeter of Prospect Park (on the street) and about halfway through I started thinking about all the delicious things I was going to put in the egg wrap I’d make myself for dinner.
When I was almost all the way around the park I checked my phone and thought it said 4.8. About 1 mile to go. I estimated about a mile, picked up my pace, and all-out sprinted the last block to the deli where I planned to grab tortillas to eat with my eggs. I checked my phone. 4.9 miles.
Clearly when I checked my phone the first time it said 3.8. Damn. After telling myself it was only important to get the mileage in, I knew I couldn’t stop. I started my phone app again and headed out for another loop.
Total of 5.68 miles in a little over 1:04:00. At this point I said “good enough” and bought some flax wraps at the market. On the plus side, all that egg daydreaming led me to experiment by stuffing an omelet with baby spinach and cottage cheese…the result was amazing.
