Sep 3, 2013

Traumatic Labor Day Experiences

Long weekends are awesome…until Tuesday rolls around and it’s that much harder to get out of bed at 5 am for a double day of T25!

Seriously though, apologies ahead of time for no fun pictures in today’s post; my phone (which also serves as my camera) is down for the count..which involves a crazy story about my long run yesterday.

The weather was pretty crappy here all last weekend with high heat and humidity (humidity was over 94% all weekend!) so I decided to save my long 11 mile run for yesterday, with the plan to skip yesterday’s T25 workout and double it up this morning (I did do a double day this morning, and I’m already feeling it!)

I drove out to a local paved trail which winds through the woods, about a 15 minute drive from my house.  I checked the weather on my phone before I left, and although the humidity was still in the high 90s, no chance of rain until after 4pm.  I figured I’d better get it over with sooner rather than later, so at 9:30, I headed out for an out and back 11 miler (5.5 out, then turn around and come back).  It started sprinkling around mile 3, which was no big deal, but around mile 5, the skies opened up and it began to pour.  I was thinking, ok, no big deal, just a little water, right? (AKA, I’m officially that badass chick running in the rain!)  Then, I saw one of those giant, light up the entire sky, flashes of lighting, and directly after, a GIANT crack of thunder that I literally felt in my bones (ok, so no longer a badass, more like a dumbass running in the lighting).  This storm was literally right over my head.  And I was running through the woods…among trees, with no shelter.  I tried to stay calm, I figured if I kept running I could get away from it.  But the rain got more intense.  And so did the thunder and lighting.  And before long, the trail started flooding, and the water level was coming up over my sneakers.  Eventually my music started to skip, and I realized my phone was probably getting soaked inside my hydration belt where I was carrying it.  So I picked up my shirt and pulled it over the belt, but my shirt was already dripping wet.  The water level was now up to my ankles, and I realized I couldn’t run through this anymore and needed to call for help; I was still a good 4 miles from my car.  My husband was at work, so I wasn’t sure who to call, and my phone’s touch screen wasn’t working because it was too wet to register my fingertip.  I used the voice activiation to call a friend..no answer.  Tried again with another friend…no answer.  Asked Siri to send a few 911 text messages.  No answer.

I started to panic.  I figured I had better start running because standing still wasn’t going to get me anywhere.  I was sopping wet, and sweat started running in my eyes, burning to the point where I couldn’t keep them open, and wiping with my drenched shirt wasn’t helping.  I was on the verge of tears, when finally I heard back from the first friend I called.  She text messaged me, but at this point even that function had stopped working on my end.  I asked Siri to call, and got a hold of my friend who agreed to drive out to my rescue.

Talk about traumatic.  In the end, I think I went about 8 miles, but it’s hard to say given the fact that my phone died and I was using that to track my mileage.  It’s home right now, sitting in some rice, hopefully coming back to life by tomorrow….fingers crossed!

So…that was my labor day…hopefully yours was a little better!

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