Might as well start with some good news.

• No pain the achilles tendon
• Great weather
• I figured out how to set the auto pause and pace alerts on my Garmin. 
• My new MP3 player works pretty well

Now the bad news:

• Only made it to 14.5 of my planned 21 miles
• Walked about a mile
• Have a big blister on the arch of my left foot
• Time to rethink my goal pace/finish time

This run sucked.  Sucked.   Did I mention it sucked?

The first 9 miles were fine.  I kept checking my Garmin to keep the pace right around 11-11:15, so that I could start the run slow and get familiar with how that pace felt.  Didn't have too much of a problem in terms of effort.  I did notice that even though I kept what felt like an even pace, my Garmin would fluctuate from a 10:00 to 12:30 pace over just a few seconds. hmm. Maybe bad satellite reception because of the tall trees?  

Starting around mile 4, I started feeling the beginnings of a blister on the arch of my left foot.  wtf.  I was wearing Wrightsocks, a pair of tried and true Brooks Adrenalines….plus, I had slathered BodyGlide all over my feet, including the spot where the blister was forming.  A little into mile 6, I stopped to loosen the shoe a little - but I guess the problem was from the arch because there was no improvement.  I decided to ignore it.

I also noticed that the Autopause function on the Garmin didn't work consistently. When I stopped to retie my shoes, take quick drink from the water fountain, the Autopause would kick in only a few times.  hmm.  

Before the end of the 9th mile, I decided to do all 7 loops at the Park.  Yeah, I know, crazy.   I had originally planned to break off after 3 loops then head Downtown for the GRB route (13 mi).  But, those 3 loops seemed to go by pretty easily and I really liked the cool shade the trees were providing.   I knew on Allen Parkway, I wouldn't have the same shade.  Listening to music helped pass the time, and I liked being surrounded by other joggers in the Park.  Since I decided to stay in the Park, I took a break to grab two more bottles for my fuel belt from my car (I left them in there to pick up on the way out to GRB).  I returned to the Loop feeling pretty positive about the run so far.  Ha!

Mile 10 was the beginning of the end.  It seemed to happen so quickly.  My pace was dropping, and I was starting to feel drained.  The gu I had taken wasn't kicking in, so I took some jelly beans.  Nothing. 

Mile 11, I started having weird problems with thirst.  The weather really wasn't bad at all (cool, even!), and my fuel belt had 2 bottles of Accelerade - but all they did was make me more thirsty.    I stopped at a water fountain, dumped out one of the bottles and filled it with water.  The water helped for a little bit, but I still couldn't shake the thirsty feeling.   Finish Strong had a tent next to the tennis courts, with four igloos full of water and Gatorade. Sylvia (Felix's wife) on duty, and I asked if the drinks were for everyone.  She said yes, so I took some cold water and Gatorade.  A relief, but short lived.  I was starting to feel really discouraged, and was developing a cramp from all the liquid. 

Mile 12 to 14, it all fell apart. The motivation/confidence I had just a few miles back were gone.  I was shufffling along, trying to focus.   I turned off my Garmin Pace Alert since it kept going off.  I felt sick and drained.  I eventually resorted to walking.  But worse than anything physical, the feelings of discouragement and failure was the worst.  Lots of negative self-talk: I didn't put enough into the SMART training, maybe I shouldn't do NYC after all, I can't do this, my time will be WORSE than Houston, I'm just not meant to run.   It was like flashbacks to that bad 30K two years ago.  I tried jogging on and off, but basically I was done.  I walked another mile, thinking I would at least WALK the 21 to get the miles in……but I gave up (yup, gave up) and walked back to my car, feeling like shit. 

I'm feeling better now than I did in the morning, but still pretty discouraged.  Three weeks left till NYC, and I feel really unprepared.  The 21-miler I did when training for the Houston Marathon seemed to go better.  If today's run was supposed to be a measure of how I'll do in NYC, then crap.