When Run Plans Run Awry - Run Anyway!

Have you ever had one of those days?  You know, a Monday!  Typically, I don't mind Monday.  It's not any worse than Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday.  But today ... today was a Monday.  It started at 5:40 when I woke up and had to pee.  This isn't bad in and of itself other than being annoying, because I risk waking the cats, who then think it's time to eat.  But on my walk from the bed to the bathroom and back again I felt a twinge in my calf.  It was a twinge I'd felt after my run on Saturday.  I had hoped my Sunday rest day plus some stretches would have been all it needed but that twinge told me maybe not.  I figured my Monday run was probably not going to happen as I climbed back into bed (fortunately, no cats had risen with me) and reset the alarm for a later time. I wasn't going to need the extra hour to wake up with coffee.  At 7:00 I woke up, texted K, my BRF, telling her I was going to have to skip out, and tried to go back to sleep.  Of course, sleep was a lost cause so I got up.  As I was moving around I realized I wasn't feeling that twinge anymore.  And even though it was raining outside, the outside was calling to me.  I really wanted to go run.  I debated for a second and texted K back telling her "never mind.  I'll be there!" 

At this point I didn't have time for coffee.  Hmmm ... a run without coffee.  But we were only planning on 4 miles so I figured I could muster through without it. No breakfast either but again, only 4 miles and slow miles to boot because, hey, babying my calf here.  I'd be fine without caffeine and food, right? I also didn't bother to bring any hydration or cash with me.  I mean, 4 miles.  I grabbed my rain and wind resistant bolero, my ID, phone, and headed out the door.

When I arrived at the trail head and exited my car I heard a hissing noise.  It was coming from my car. K pulled up just then and upon hearing it said, "I think it's coming from your tire."  Sure enough, she spied bubbles on my tire where the air was seeping past the raindrops and tucked in beside it was a rock.  Great.  I had a flat in the making.  We both knew that meant our 4 miler together was toast.  Mmm...toast.  That would have been a good breakfast with some PB spread on it.  But I digress.  I called my husband and he said he was fairly certain we got the tires at Les Schwab (from here on out known as LS) and so I could take the car straight there even though I didn't have any money on me.  They shouldn't charge me for a fix.  We parted ways, me to LS and she to home.  She didn't want to run the trail by herself since it was secluded.  She was going to run elsewhere.


I arrived at LS ready to sit for a bit while I waited on my car.  When they told me it would be an hour at least to even get my car looked at my heart sunk.  This was not how I planned on spending my day.  I wanted to run.  I blame the slow connections going on in my brain here on the lack of my daily cup o' joe but eventually all cylinders fired and I realized I could start my run from here!  Duh!  I happily proclaimed, "That's fine.  I'm going to go run and I'll be back".  I quickly sent K a text to share my good news that I'd realized I could still get a run in.  She quickly responded saying she'd stopped at the Post Office and could join me.  I ran the half mile or so to the PO and met her. Yay! This was working out after all!  We managed to get in a nice 3 miles together before she had to take off for a work thing.  I carried on for a couple more miles.  I didn't want to go back to LS until my car was done.  It was pouring rain and I knew if I stopped I'd quickly get chilled.  I was going to have to keep moving until my tire was fixed. 

I took this after I parted ways with K, about 5 miles into my run and my first pass through to see if my car was ready. Nope!

Usually, I'm a sipper.  That means, I like to sip on water or electrolyte when I'm running anything over 4 miles.  I was now in the 5 mile range and kicking myself for not bringing my handheld but thanks to the rain, I wasn't feeling thirsty.  This was good news!  And my dinner of tacos and cauliflower rice (don't ask about that combo) was doing a good job of carrying me over because I wasn't hungry either.  I figured if they were done when I got back in a few minutes I'd be golden.  I ran up in front of their building only to see my car still left where I parked it.  Uh oh.  I dashed inside to get a status report.  It was going to be at least another 30 minutes.  Super!  That was sarcastic, in case you didn't catch the inflection in my writing.  I was a little concerned with how more miles was going to go over with my lack of hydration and food but again, stopping movement wasn't going to be an option. This was a No Post Run Chills Zone! LS may offer free popcorn but something tells me they didn't have a sauna or hot tub available to warm me back up. Since my calf wasn't hurting and my energy was still good I kept on keeping on.  I figured I could run to the library where I could get a drink of water and use the restroom.  Looking back, I could have done all that at LS but again, no coffee meant all cylinders weren't firing in my brain.  And at this point, I had runner's brain to boot! Oh well!  The library gave me a goal destination. 

Hey! It's the library!  

Finally, a little sip of water!

I took a few photos at this point because I realized I could blog this whole adventure!  What to do when your plans get disrupted!  As K said, "Good job making lemonade out of lemons!" There were lots of bright moments in my day! I was getting extra mileage (7.5 all said and done), I was feeling fairly strong and getting some good hill work in, the rain was at least warm at 48 degrees, and my body was doing really well for not getting its sip of water every half mile. And best of all, my calf wasn't bothering me at all!  My mood was actually pretty good.  Until I was ready to be done.  Ha! Obviously, as one who has run ultras I can run 7.5 miles but my mind and body hadn't prepped for it and I had other things to do at home. Time to wrap this side trip up!

I circled back to LS and saw that my car was now in the docks being worked on.  My inner self frowned as I looked up the road toward Starbucks and wished I had brought at least a few bucks to buy a coffee.  Okay, it's Starbucks, it might require more than a few bucks but you get the idea.  I started to run that way anyway because I still had time to kill and then it dawned on me (no coffee brain, remember) I had my phone on me and my phone had the Starbucks app.  Would it work? It had been a long time since I'd used it.  I've been really good about tapering off my Starbucks habit and drinking Keurig at home with just a splash of cashew or coconut milk.  I stopped on the sidewalk in the pouring rain and opened the app.  After a few minutes I had loaded it up with 10 bucks and proceeded into the heavenly aroma of coffee.  It was a very long wait as they had a large order ahead of me but at least it was warm inside. I kept a smile on my face and a cheery disposition despite my frustration. What else could I expect on this particular Monday? 

Finally, I had my coffee in hand, a smoked butterscotch with coconut milk! It was like a liquid candy bar.  Yummy!

My vehicle calling to me with it's heated seats!

Of course, this meant I had to walk back to LS instead of run because it's hard to run with a hot coffee in your hand.  Walking meant I could feel the rain soaking me.  When you're running you don't really notice how wet you're getting but walking, walking is a different story.  As I approached LS I saw my vehicle was sitting in the parking lot.  Hurray!  This meant it was ready to go!

I went inside to retrieve my keys and was instead met with the information that they couldn't fix the tire.  Apparently, my tires were really worn down and all needed to be replaced.  What? My tire is still punctured?  All that and I still have a flat in progress?  And how can my tires be that bad?  They aren't that old!  I shared the info with my husband later and we're still not sure how the tires wore down so quickly but as soon as he can he's gonna check it out (he's still at work as I type this).  He's usually really on top of our tire wear (he used to work at LS in our college days) so having them in such bad shape is not normal for our household. 

Well, there was no way I could pay for new tires right then and there, especially without talking to my husband about it.  Oh, and that little matter of having NO MONEY on me! Did I mention I was now literally dripping wet? What to do?  How am I supposed to get home, I asked. They assured me I'd be okay to drive home and they'd make sure there was good air pressure before sending me on my way.  What choice did I have?  I pulled around to one of the docks so they could give me a quick shot of air.  Here a different employee met me.  He kindly showed me where the wear was on the tires and then went around to check on the bad tire.  "Oh," he said, "I see the problem.  You've got a rock puncture.  If you've got 5 minutes I'll just patch it for you.  I don't feel safe sending you on your way like that."  Can we say grateful?  I'm not sure if he was supposed to fix it or not or if it was a case of "in the eyes of the beholder" depending on if they were below "fixable" range but I'm so very thankful that he took the 5 minutes to patch the tire.  I assured him my husband would look at the tires and we'd get them replaced before driving the vehicle anymore.  Which we will do. I felt so much better making the drive home knowing my tire wasn't going to wonk out on me and really, it's gotta be safer than sending me home with a punctured tire.  I was driving home either way so ...

Now my car sits and waits and I drove our big F350 to the movie theater with my kiddo this afternoon where we met my mom and dad to celebrate my mom's birthday with a viewing of The Greatest Showman. I ate a soft pretzel and Jr. Mints.  My lunch.  My first food of the day other than that coffee because it's the first chance I had to eat.  Monday ya' all!  But hey, the movie was great and who can argue with seeing a really well done movie on a Monday?  Maybe Monday isn't so bad, after all?