However, this morning I greeted the dawn in all my neon glory and made my triumphant return to running. It was easily the worst experience of my entire life but somehow I survived and 4.31 miles later I'm here to tell you about it.
Summer is here which means the temperature is rising so I wanted a morning run, since I'm working this weekend I figured this would be a great opportunity to show up to work early and hit the trail. I forced myself to sleep early and woke up before my alarm this morning.
I was frantic with excitement and quickly gathered my things and headed out the door. In my haste I forgot to take my seasonal allergy medicine and decided that it would be a great idea to add an energy pack to my bottle of water. These were both poor choices.
I was anxious about how deconditioned I had become with all my sulking so I decided to not use the C25K app I had been working with and just turn up my music and go, setting an alarm on my phone for when I needed to turn around so I could get back to work on time without being propelled by fear. By the time I got to the trail I was feverish with excitement and energy packet and I was more frolicking than running at that point.
Everything started out great, the trail was felt like a tunnel at some points with all the the greenery that had bloomed since the last time I ran it was a really neat feeling to surrounded by all the green. Speaking of which did I mention I forgot my allergy medicine? My sinuses seemed to close almost instantly which makes breathing interesting but I can manage mouth breathing so it wasn't the end of the world.
Then the heart burn kicked in, I've been dealing with this at night for the past few days due to stress and poor dietary choices. I suspect the energy packet activated this and suddenly I was running in agony. This wasn't normal I had Mema's spaghetti sauce with dinner last night heartburn this was I made poor dietary choices all week and I may have given myself an ulcer due to this house buying process oh and also I did actually have Mema's spaghetti sauce with dinner last night heart burn which roughly feels like a gigantic hole is about to burn through your chest and it pulses and gets more severe with physical exertion or vomiting (both of which were happening in high quantities on the trail this morning).
I would have preferred to run with a dislocated shoulder to give you an idea of how I was feeling. I probably would have killed someone for a piece of sidewalk chalk to gnaw on. All though the pain I kept on, not because I'm stubborn and reckless but because I was 2 miles away from the office and had no choice. Eventually I found a great Sprint, Jog, Walk, Heave, Stumble, and Repeat pattern that served me well. At one point I was able to lose myself in the music instead of the fire in my chest and busted out with a pretty sick air guitar only to look up and find an oncoming running watching me and laughing. Whoops!
So embarrassment and complete physical agony aside I made it back and survived my return to running. No more spaghetti sauce for me and maybe I should meditate some of this stress away because I'm going back out there tomorrow today's nightmare not withstanding the trail is my happy place.
