14 miles

I started off with the running club this morning, but I didn't plan to finish.

Paul helped me get out there; my son had baseball tryouts, and he needed to be at practice at 9. So Paul drove me to the club's meeting place at 6 a.m. (We have one car for both environmental and frugality reasons.) Lately, he's been talking me out of my group runs, so it was great to get some help getting there.

The club was doing 24 miles, and I recognized the reality that I'm not quite there. I haven't hit 20 since November. My plan, too, was to run the last 5.5 miles of the L.A. marathon again. So I ran three miles with the group and then headed up San Vicente on my own.

The gradual ascent was killing me. I started thinking negatively.

Why the heck am I doing this?

Who am I to think I can do this?

If I can't even run eight miles, what makes me think I can do 26?

That's so not my style anymore, but there it was. I was going back to gym class days when I first established my self portrait as athletically incompetent. And, of course, there's some reality to the fact that that stuff really isn't my strength.

I've also been having iPod issues, so there was no music. Which couldn't have helped.

So I walked more than I usually do on my own, at least on the way up the hill.

On the way back, downhill of course, running was wonderful again. When I got to the numbered streets (I think 27th), I planned to walk at 11th street. Then I realized I didn't need to walk. Then I planned to walk at 7th. Seventh came and went. (I did have to stop for a long traffic light, which probably helped.) I kept on running until the end of San Vicente. (And then I took a short walk break.)

It wasn't the greatest run, but it was something. It was also rather slow. The 14 miles took me three hours, and the slow part was going up San Vicente. I'm not counting the green tea break I took at about the halfway point.

I didn't eat during the run -- just water, some salt and electrolytes without processed sugar or artficial sweeteners.

Shoe issues: The problem with having bought the exact same pair of running shoes is that I cannot tell them apart anymore unless I look at them closely. The more used pair has bigger toe holes in the front mesh.

I've gone ahead and ordered two new pairs -- both are different colors and one is a half-size bigger. I'm going to see how the bigger shoes work, particularly on longer runs when I know my feet swell a bit.