The first 10 miles were great

This weekend was my 15 miler. The weather was perfect - sunny and warm, but not too warm. I have been nervous before every long run so far and this was no exception. Looking back at my first "long" run of 6 miles, that seems laughable. At this point my middle of the week run is now up to 8 miles.

So this week, I loaded my fuel belt with 2 ibuprofen and a package of Shot Blocks (strawberry this week) and headed to meet Runner Wendy. As is our normal routine, we chatted through the miles about our weeks, our plans for Disney World and what we hoped to do with the rest of our weekends. The first 10 miles flew by. Then reality set in. We started to get hot and thirsty after mile 10. And that's where we made our tactical error.

We had increased our distance 2 miles and we knew that the city water fountains were turned off last week. What we didn't consider was that we should have added an additional water stop. We had water stops at miles 3, 5 and 9 but nothing for the last 6 miles. I remembered that the train station had a water fountain but it was almost at the end of our route. By mile 12 we knew that we were in trouble. We were thirsty and there was no water at any time soon. I felt like a wilted plant. Runner Wendy and I were weaving across the trail and occasionally bumping into each other. All we could think about for 2 1/2 miles was water. We kept repeating to each other "Just a little farther until water." The train station never looked so good as when we spotted it in the distance that morning.

We finished our run without losing consciousness. During our post-run stretching, discussion turned to what was next for us. We couldn't decide whether we wanted to eat first, shower first or rest first. I opted for food. I stopped on the way home and got a drink and 2 doughnuts - and yes, I ate them both.

That night I slept for 11 hours. Ah, the glamorous life of the athlete...