How I accidentally ran nearly 19 miles in one day...

How does one do that??  It sounds insane.  

It all happened last Thursday. 

Thursday is my day, the one day a week that Norah attends preschool and I get to do whatever the heck I want.  It's amazing.

My favorite way to start my Thursday is with a long run, knowing I have no real time restriction leading me to cut my miles short.  It's awesome!  And HARD.  : )  

Running is not easy for me.  I am not one of those people.  I think to some it just comes easy, but that is not me.  I fight through it because it make me feel really good when I'm done. 

Anyhow, last Thursday I set out to run 8 miles and it went pretty well.  (Much better than the 9 I did yesterday morning!)  

When I got home I received an email from a gal from the event I was supposed to volunteer at that evening, she was requesting I be a pacer for the run, which means that I run with a group and try to keep them going at a certain speed.  

Now I've never done this before, and truth be told, I had no idea what kind of run this was exactly.  I had done zero research and just figured it was a 5 mile loop or something.

Anyhow, I arrive at the event, which was over in Tualatin, and they hand me a map that is showing a large area, and then about 13 dots all piled on top of each other, representing check points that I am supposed to lead my group to.  On the sidebar there is a list of businesses that most I have never heard of and exactly none I knew the location of.  I don't know Tualatin at all really.  This map had no street names on it and was approximately zero help.  

I stood there frozen, feeling totally overwhelmed.  I'm pretty much the world's most directionally challenged person, and I am supposed to lead a group of people from business to business among streets I don't know??  Um no.  

A normal person would of just been honest and told the organizer that I was ill equipped for this task and bowed out gracefully.  But no, not me.  

Rather than doing that, the logical thing, I was just freaking out, explaining my issues to Mr. Marathoner that drove here from Seattle to pace the sub 8 group, so if that means nothing to you I will explain, he is very, very fast and runs all the time, with ease.  

I jokingly said to him "maybe we should run this ahead of time so we know where we are going."  

I don't know what happened, but the next thing I knew we are off, pre-running our run.  

Um a normal person may of taken their car to do this?  Just a thought, in retrospect...

So we ended up booking a little over 5 miles as I struggled to keep up with him and we tried to figure out the streets of Tualatin and where all these crazy businesses were.  And to be really honest this tactic did little to help me.  It almost confused me more.  I was so turned around by the time we were through.

But worst of all, at this point I was EXHAUSTED.  I had run EIGHT miles that morning and now another five.  

We got back right in time for the race to start.  It's almost funny.  No it is funny, really funny.  Now...

So here I am, tired and confused about where the heck I am going and attempting to lead a group.  I grabbed hold of a few people that seemed more comfortable with the area and made them help me decide where to begin this madness.  And we ran and ran.  And I was so tired of running... And honestly the majority of the time I was not leading, I was following.  Pretty embarrassing really but it is what it is.  : )

Even in my exhausted state the run was super fun!

So by the time we got back I was just under 19 miles for the day.  And they had no water.  At all.  No water, at a run.  But they did have beer, and even though I'm not a super huge fan of beer, that was just about the most delicious a beer has ever tasted.  Yum.

So I'm sitting there, basking in the flavor of this delicious beer and my total runners high when the director comes out and whispers in my ear, "hey if you want some of that beer over there feel free to take some home".   Even though I am not a super big beer fan, I was thrilled because I knew John would be excited if I came home with what I ended up getting, which was an entire case of Lagunitas IPA!  

Next the chick brings out a box of compression sleeves, and in this box is the exact pair I was coveting earlier that evening in florescent pink, I ended up getting those and a really cute black and white pair too! 

I'm just in a state of shock at this point.  All these great things AND if I volunteer at the other event they are holding in October I get a gift certificate for $160 towards any pair of shoes in their store!  

Could this be more awesome?  

Um yes.  Because next thing I know some random lady walks by and puts a handful of Starburst on my beer box and I LOVE Starburst.  

Then, brace yourself, the director brings out a box filled with SHOES for everyone!!  We all dove into that box like it was a pile of 100 bills.  Which I guess technically it sort of was as when I looked up the shoes on Amazon they were worth just that.  At first all I could find was a 7.5, I really needed an 8.  Then I found an 8.5, all the shoes are gone at this point, they went quick.  I was resolved to making them work when as I was about to walk away a lady says "hey does any one have an 8.5 they want to trade for an 8?"  Um YES.  

These are them.  I'm not sure I love them after wearing them once but I am so very grateful to be given new shoes,  it feels like such a blessing.  Maybe I can sell them and buy some that work for my feet better or better yet donate them to someone who really needs them.

So the whole experience was basically perfect and magical.

And to top all that off, the best part, was the awesomeness of PRing on my most miles ever in one day!  

Best running day ever!!  : )

All that being said, taking the car really would of been smarter!  Hahaha.