I Cheated

I'm going to come out and say it...I cheated on my running partner.  Yep, I ran with others and didn't consult her about it.  Do I feel bad?  Yeah, a little.  Do I feel a little guilty for not asking her to come?  Maybe.  Did I have a good run without her?  Not too bad, except for my IT band (again.).  Was I upfront with her about it afterwards?  Yes.  Did she have any idea I cheated on her?  She says yes, but I don't know how she would have known.  Was she upset?  I dunno, we only texted, hard to get a feel about one's feelings through text.  

I guess the backstory is in order.  Amy and I headed out with all of our fellow Nashville Striders on our 18 mile training run on Saturday.  The run started at LP field, went downtown, and went along the final 16 miles of the Country Music Marathon route.  Now, I had never run the full CMM, so this was pretty new to me.  Amy, however, had run it and told me it was a pretty boring run, scenery wise.  Boy, was she right.  I don't know how marathoners running that race could keep themselves motivated.  Anyway, we finally met Strangluvr along the way (BTW, sorry we didn't chat) and we ran with another nice Striders newbie.  It's always nice to meet new people when running.  I've found it kinda hard to get into the clique of certain runners, so it's nice to meet other newbies.  About 14 miles in, my IT band was starting to kill me, but I kept at it.  Other than my knee, I felt great.  It was very nice out, although a little windy towards the end.  At mile 15 or so, another runner ran with us for a mile or so and told us that he and another training group had runs on Sunday morning and invited us out at 9 am the next day.  I had planned to run a bit on Sunday, but I really wanted to sleep in and run in the afternoon.  I told him thanks and he went on ahead (thanks to Amy, who had some sort of issues, I'm sure she'll talk about those in her blog).  I left Amy at the water station at and did a couple miles by my lonesome (first sign of a troubled running relationship, I say).  She leapt back on the road and we hobbled to the car.  18 miles at a 9:05 pace.  I was pretty happy with it except for my IT band.

Fast forward to Sunday morning.  I had gotten to bed about midnight with hopes to sleep in a bit.  I was EXHAUSTED and didn't feel all that well.  I woke up at 7 am and tossed and turned for an hour or so.  At 8 I decided it wasn't worth the effort, so I got up and started to stumble about.  I checked my knee...it was OK.  I figured I could run 5 if I needed to.  Then I remembered the invite to a training run out at Percy Warner Park.  Well, I might as well run and get it over with, I told myself.  So, without any consultation with my running partner, I headed on out to PWP.  When I got there, I saw a few people warming up, but I decided to stay in my truck until a few minutes before start-time as it was 19 degrees according to my truck.  I got out at 8:55, asked if this was the running group and waited around a bit.  I found the guy that invited me and he introduced me to the leader of the pack, who seemed like a nice guy.  He then told me that they usually start about 10 minutes late!  Jeez, I had no long spandex on and it's 20 degrees!  But, it gave me a chance to meet a couple of the regulars and chat with them about the group.  Right before the run, I met another group newbie, who I ended up running with.  The group had three divisions: novice, intermediate, and advanced.  The run-wrecker and I decided to go with the intermediates, because I had never run trails, and I didn't know how my IT band was going to take the hills.  We ran a comfortable 9 minute/mile pace for the 5.8 mile loop in the park.  The intermediates were then supposed to run another 4ish miles, but my IT band had had enough, so I left the run-wrecker to finish the run without me.  

Well, Amy, I hope you aren't too upset with me.  It will not happen again (until maybe next Sunday)...

Peace out, homies.