recapping the weekend

ok, so my grumpiness is centered more around some familial issues that I'm dealing with, including the facts that:

-my father decided (unbeknownst to me) to give away the majority of my mother's belongings to my aunt (who was having a garage sale this past weekend),
-Monday would have been their 36th anniversary,
-There is no one up north who is capable of even knowing how to make a cake so that the rugrat could have a proper birthday celebration yesterday (i'm a firm believer that everyone should have a cake made for them on their birthday, and Nana Sue was the one who always did it in our family), and
-I just miss my mom. a lot. cancer fucking sucks, people.

but those things aren't nearly as humorous as that incredibly unfortunate picture of gary, coupled with his criticism toward me, so he got to be the scapegoat this time around.

on a happier note, I got some kickass runs in this weekend. Saturday I was able to wake up a little bit later, since it was only going to reach the high 70's that day. This was good because I spent a good chunk of time on the phone Friday night with airforce friend and couldn't get to bed early. did the pre-run preparing (including stopping by the store to pick up some bug spray) and then made the drive to a park that's well known for its rather challenging mountain biking trails. the plan was to do the long loop, which was between 17.5 and 18 miles. I was a little nervous because I had never completed this trail before and I stupidly hadn't brought a trail map with me. I was also worried about hydrating well enough. I have a 6 bottle fuel belt, but I knew that wouldn't be enough on a run that was going to last 3+ hours. the map that I had looked at the day before said that there were two water pumps along the way, so I had decided to take the huge risk that they were actually functioning and started off on my run. I hadn't gone a mile in before the new headphones that I had purchased the day before started falling out of one of my ears, so after fiddling with it for a mile I decided to run with only one headphone in, which actually worked out well since it allowed me to hear people coming on the trail a bit easier.

Running along, I head off the trail that i'm familiar with and onto the unknown trail. suddenly I realize that one of my fuelbelt bottles has somehow fallen out of my belt, and has taken one of my packets of sports beans with it. So now i'm out 1/6 of my water, and 1/3 of my fuel. wonderful. I am also getting increasingly worried about whether or not the water pumps will actually be functional and am starting to get irritated with myself for not asking one of the park rangers or mountain bikers. I had decided last week to just take this run nice and easy, and I renew this vow in light of the fact that I am kind of ill prepared to complete this run.

All is going well until I reach a point where the trail breaks at an intersecting road. I'm not exactly certain where I need to go, so I follow the gravel road in front of me, hoping it will lead me to the connection to the trail I'm on. It does indeed lead me to a trail, but there are no markers so I worry that perhaps this is the wrong trail. I recall that these trails also connect to the waterloo-pickney trail, which is 35 miles long, at some point. I hope that this is not that connection, noting that there really is no other trail to continue on, and trod ahead. I reach another intersecting road and wonder why there aren't any trail markers. As it turns out, there was no other trail in that area for me to get lost on, thus the need for no trail maps or markers... but how was I supposed to know that? I'm about an hour and a half in (there are, excectedly, no mile markers so the only way I know approximately how far out I was was by time), I'm about half way through my water, and I'm starting to get worried because I haven't seen anything indicating I'm on the right trail in FOREVER. I eventually reach a break in the trail and there is A TRAIL MARKER! yay! I am instantly relieved. I look at the map and try to memorize the rest of the trail so that I don't get worried again. I note that there's really no other trail to turn onto for a while yet, and a symbol on the map indicates that there will be another trail marker at that point, so I am happy. I note how far it is to the water pump, since the other water pump is located in the middle of a shortcut that bisects the trail, and which I wasn't taking. Fuel-wise I'm doing well, and have rationed my shot blocks well. I'm feeling good, taking the trail nice and easy.

Did I mention that mountain bikers are incredibly hot? no? well, they are. and, they are very nice to me, so this lifts my spirits a lot. I'm a happy runner.

I reach the water pump and it is not only fuctioning, it's pouring out nice, cold, city water... not the well water that I was expecting. I am ridiculously excited, and douse myself in the glorious fluid. this is kind of a bad idea because I'm wearing a very thin white tank top, but whatever. I fill up all my bottles, down a bunch of water while i'm there, and head on. The majority of the trail is behind me now, and the section leading back to the trails that I'm familiar with go quickly. the trail isn't all that difficult, but the length, coupled with some significant hills (several of which I walked to conserve energy) and some challenging terrain make it a difficult run. there's a lot of lateral movement to get around tree ruts and the rocks and such, and I'm really feeling a lot of muscles that I'm not used to feeling on my usual runs. I think to myself that even though my speed is lacking, this run was definitely making me stronger.

I reached the connection to the shorter trails and chose the appropriate path. the next 4 miles seem to never end as i'm tired, running out of water (again), and am getting cranky from not having that extra packet of sports beans. I finally see a familiar trail marker, indicating I am about 1.5 miles away from the trailhead when some sort of insect decides to dive bomb my hand and suddenly sting me. WTF?! it hurts like hell and i'm worried about what the insect was and whether I might be allergic to it. I assume that my hand will fall off fairly swiftly, so I hightail it to the end of the trail and walk to my car, happy to be able to return home.

my hand does not fall off.