Since I've been having motivation issues with my long runs lately I decided to get mine done today by running in 2 races that would total the length of my long run. I know that long runs are supposed to be slow so I decided I was running more for the motivation to finish and not to actually win the race. I didn't realize how much 2nd shift would affect my sleeping (despite going to bed at 2am I still get up before 8!!). So when my alarm went off at 8am this morning for race #1 I decided to snooze it an extra hour or so and just do race 2, which was the longer one, and the only I prepaid to compete in. Since I still needed 9 miles I got to the 2nd race a little early and ran 3 miles, which turned out to be a good thing because it helped me decided what I needed to wear for the race.
I had just enough time to get my 3 miles in at a slow pace, run to the bathrooms, and get back to the start line with 3 minutes to spare! The problem with running races for long runs is that no matter how hard you try to go slow you still start off waay to fast!! My first mile was about a minute faster than I wanted and even though I tried to slow down I didn't slow down much. Most of the race was a trail run and the trails are pretty beat up from the storm we had a few weeks ago.
About 1.5 miles in I passed a girl who looked like she was in pain but trying to keep running. I ran past her and thought to myself "I should say something encouraging or ask if she's ok" but I never know if people would be offended if I try to talk to them so I kept my mouth shut and kept running. A few minutes later I decided to take a little trip and faceplanted. A nice lady stopped and made sure I was ok and helped me up before getting back to her race. I decided that I was going to have to walk the rest of the way because my elbows and knees were in a lot of pain. It turns out the faceplant was a blessing in disguise because a few minutes later the girl I ran past earlier caught up to me and really wasn't looking so great. This time I asked her if she was ok and since I had decided that I was going to walk for at least a little while I offered to walk the rest of the race with her. She started talking in a way that reminded me of of how people moments before having a seizure and sure enough a few seconds later she collapsed and I caught her just as she was about to fall down a 20 foot drop into a ditch. I guess the faceplant was God's way of telling me that I shouldn't have ignored my instincts earlier and he was giving me a second chance to help the girl.
When she mentally started recovering from the incident a race official had showed up and asked her if there was someone in the race that she knew or someone we could call. She couldn't remember her mom's cell phone number. This whole thing brought back memories of when I was in middle school and had a seizure. When you come out of it you are totally unaware of your surroundings and I have no memory of the 2 hours after it happened. All of this made me realize that I really need to run with emergency contact information on me. I ran with my ID today but I hardly ever do that and even if something did happen it wouldn't really help since that address is wrong (thanks to my state not replacing drivers licenses when you move...) and there isn't a phone # of who to call if someone finds me lying on the side of the road.
My mom told me a few months ago that she would order me a Road ID if I told her what I wanted on it. I guess this is my motivation for getting that info together for her now...
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