Day 74 - 14 miles (Part 1 - 32:57, Part 2 - 1:38:07 )

"I'm in pain and I'm wet and I'm hysterical!!!!" - Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder), The Producers

Miles Ran: 255.48 Dollars Raised: $1,167.40 (Thank you Dot Coutard!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Run Part 1: 4 miles (32:57)

It's so hard to get motivated in the mornings... I was fairly satisfied with my time for the four miles, but I was struggling with those recurring blisters again! I'm spending the rest of the day covering them with bandaids, Neosporin, and moleskin, so hopefully that will help a little bit by my ten mile run tonight.

What I'm mainly worried about, besides the pain, is that I'll overcompensate on my left leg (which already started getting a pain in my hip) and cause a different kind of injury.

Speaking of injuries, I forgot to mention last night that I had read a few chapters in Born to Run that reallyyyyy got into the barefoot running. It made me want to get out on a track and try it out! It made me think how terrible shoe companies are, knowing that the more they put into a shoe, the more it weakens the foot, but continue to push these ridiculous cushioned stabilizing form fitting shoes. I want to try the FiveFingers (http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/) just to see what a difference it makes.

Ahhh.. now I'm mentally preparing myself for the rest of the day to conquer part deux of 14 miles in, what sounds like, a snow "squall".

Run Part 2: 10 miles (1:38:07)

This was the second time, besides the Grafton run, that I was so exhausted/overwhelmed/sore/proud after my run that I just wanted to break down into tears.

I felt like I was going into a basketball game, against the toughest team, with all of the odds against me.

• Blisters on the ball of my right foot
• Knee pain causing hip pain causing back pain in my left leg
• Snow SQUALL
• No running buddies
• Ipod battery dead
• Bitter cold and RIDICULOUS wind

First, I picked up a little gel "ball of foot" insert Trainer Clark suggested, which was a HUGE help. When I started off I decided, you know what? I'm already pushing my body to extremes, I'm not going to worry about my time and just focus on how my foot was landing on the slippery snow and short, slow strides to keep my aches from paining me anymore. At about 4 miles my hip and back reallyyyy started flaring up. I had to stop for a few minutes to stretch it out on one of the statues in the Common. On the way back, I could not believe the amount of wind there was. There were points where I was just being blown to the side and my hat was flying away. At mile 9 I actually had to stop and go inside a Dunkin Donuts to try and warm up my hands because they were starting to feel numb.

I am just so relieved and proud of myself that I was able to put in that ten. I was pumping myself up the entire run thinking things like, "I AM going to finish", "I AM going to get up this hill", "I AM going to get this full ten in". It was so long and painful in so many ways, I actually considered stopping into a store to use their phone and have my brother come pick me up with a T pass home. But, I finished. :)