30 to 80 in one week

After I finished my run this morning and Garmin and Trailmomma were waiting on me to get in, trailmomma made a casually remarked "You went from 30 to 80 in a week!" What that means is in one week I went from looking like a 30 yr old runner to a 80 yr old runner. I found that comment kind of funny because in looking back at my runs this week, she is absolutely right. Let me back up a bit.

Trailmomma wasn't expecting me to be up and running by Tuesday, but I surprised her with a little e-mail saying I was ready to do 6. Legs were feeling good and I wanted to get back out there. This was before I woke up that morning and I couldn't move my neck. If I needed to look at something to my right I had to move my entire torso. Then while I am at work I run my big toe over with a pallet jack at full speed and my toe is swollen and I am betting I will lose my toe nail. What luck! I can run 33 miles on Saturday and feel great a couple of days later only to run my toe over. But I wasn't going to let that stop me, I forced my now swollen foot into my running shoe and off I went to meet trailmomma.
I ended up doing 6 on Tuesday but it was completely painful. I couldn't turn my neck, I was hobbling along because any sort of pressure on my foot sent excoriating pain through my body. I had to walk some of the 6, but I did it. Yeah me!!!! Maybe I should have taken that Tuesday off because looking back on my time it wasn't very pretty.
I wake up Wednesday morning and I am having this strange sensation penetrating through my right side. I can't grip anything with my right hand, my hand is tingling, I still can't move my neck, and now I can't even raise my right arm above my head, and the right side of my jaw was killing me. I could hardly open my mouth without pain. Great Now What!!!!
This lasted most of the day and went into Thursday. I looked pretty ridiculous walking into work cradling my right arm near my body. I was even having a hard time opening doors. At my house the doors have those child locks on the door grips. Will, I couldn't open the door and had to have my sister open it for me because I couldn't grip anything. How embarrassing.
By Friday I was feeling a little better, I mean my toe was still throbbing and I had been draining it for a few days now, I still couldn't move my neck, but I could raise my arm, and the pain in my jaw wasn't so severe. So I decided I would try and run on Saturday.
I was the last one to arrive at our meet up spot. Trailmomma asked "Is your body numb?" I just laughed because it was going to be if it wasn't already. Garmin took the lead followed by trailmomma and than myself. I wasn't too sure how far I would be going and if I would be able to keep up. The first few miles my legs felt great. I was able to keep up. We passed a few runners and than played hop scotch. At our favorite look out point we had a instant photo shoot. We even got the other runners to pose for us. Check out Trailmomma, she will be posting the pictures.

Look at them go!

At this point we all checked in to see how we were feeling. I was feeling surprising good and so were Garmin and Trailmomma. We decided to go a few more miles. We were only at mile 5 so we were possibly looking at 14 miles today. As we continued running I was running slower and slower and would only catch glimpses of them. We did have  a great time with our "bird" calls. A bird even answered. We would "bird" call to each other, or I should say they would "bird" call to me and I would respond. This way we would know where we were on trail. Just in case. By mile 6 I took in a GU and I also took a s-cap. My legs were getting real sluggish and for some reason I was getting stiff.
Finally I made it to the turn around. Here we had another JC Penny photo shoot.

Nice

By this point I my right shoulder was screaming at me, my toes hurt and it felt like my feet had swollen, my legs were feeling sluggish but I still had a smile on my face. It wasn't all that bad just a few minor adjustments and all would be good. As we ran back in I couldn't keep up with those 2. They were like lightening and I felt like......

a snail!

I couldn't get my legs to turn over. But I was still having fun, my only concern was I hope that trailmomma and Garmin weren't waiting for me. My spirits were up, I knew I had pushed it a bit today but I really wanted to be outside running.

This Way! Just for you Trailmomma

When I came upon the road crossing guess who was waiting for me. Yup, Garmin and trailmomma. What good friends, waiting to make sure I was alright. Thanks

I never did see them on the road leading to Cavitt. By the time I got back to the car they had already changed their shoes. I was still smiling as I walked up though. I was carrying my pack and hobbling a little bit. It was great to be outside and in the dirt, but maybe next time I wont push myself because I am sure today I will pay for it.

Thanks for the run with good friends and the JC Penny photo shoot. Who knows, maybe one day you will see us in the catalog.

Trailmomma was right, I was running like a 80 yr old, but I am OK with that.