Cough Drops are the New GU

On Friday morning, I woke up with a sore throat and some achiness going on.  After we got back from the quickest Black Friday shopping trip ever, I plopped myself down on the couch and didn’t do much for the next two days.  I even skipped out on the redonk runner’s 4-mile Turkey Trot.  (If you didn’t participate, HURRY, you’ve got a few hours left to squeeze it in there!)  I woke up this morning feeling MUCH better, except for this damn cough.  I’m popping Halls like they’re going out of style.

Anyway, in case you’ve missed it, I’m running the St. Jude half-marathon in Memphis next Saturday and have very much half-assed my training.  I knew today was my last shot at getting in a decent long run so that I went into the half with ONE double-digit run under my belt.  (See, I told you I’ve half-assed it.)  So I threw a handful of cough drops in my jacket pocket and headed out.  Even though the radar looked like this:

I’ve always said that I don’t mind running in the rain, but let me tell ya.  TEN MILES IS A BIT MUCH.  I was drenched and freezing by mile one, but I absolutely refused to cut it short.  It rained on me from the first step to the last, never letting up in the slightest.  It was cold and not enjoyable in the least, but something miraculous happened.  I set a new 10-mile personal best!  I don’t know where that came from or how I pulled it off, but I eeked out this 10 miles 33 seconds faster than I did the last time I ran 10 miles in the spring just a couple of weeks before I PRd the half-marathon distance.  And I NEVER run negative splits, but I negative split the hell out of today’s run.  My fastest miles were miles 6, 8, and 10.

Anybody know what they’re putting in cough drops these days???  Cuz that was my ONLY fuel on this run!

I still in no way think that I’m in a position to PR on Saturday.  I really have no plan to even attempt any specific time goal.  I’m just gonna take this one for what it is, have fun, and enjoy the course and the day.  I got what I needed out of today’s run–just the comfort of knowing that I at least won’t be MISERABLE next weekend.  If I can run 10 on Sunday, 13.1 won’t kill me on Saturday.  But I may load my pockets down with cough drops just in case.