Walls are tall, impenetratable, and they SUCK

Today, I hit probably my first major wall while training. Hard to imagine it took me this long. I mean I've had workouts where I'm like "I don't really want to do this", but I always do and it's not too bad.

Today was so different. Usually, I take in calories like clockwork...every 45 minutes. I have to or I die. Only a few times have I not followed this routine, and it was for much shorter workouts, so there were no real effects. I ate a cliff bar for breakfast and took a gel before we ran. Since many people we run with only eat when we stop, this can be anytime really. I keep my gels in my pocket of my camelback, and its hard to reach around and get them unless I walk and take off the camelback. I just did not realize that I hadn't eaten in over an hour and a half! About mile 7, I hit this thing (see picture) hard....I mean running headfirst into it without a helmet...twice. All I wanted to do was sit in the middle of the road and pout.

I slowly dropped back from the group, and they seemed like they were holding a 5 min/mile pace. I was sooooooo frustrated, but I knew that wasn't going to help the situation. So I walked and took a gel, took a good drink of water, and started running again. At this point, the group was ahead of me by about two tenths of a mile (0.2). I ran thru one walk break and closed in on them, then we got to a downhill and I basically sprinted down the hill and finally caught up to Jim, Alissa, and Jack. I stayed with them until the end of the 6 mile course, and then Jim went on with the other group who was running it again. We had already run 4 miles before the 6 miles course, and including the 1.25 running to the course, we had gone about 11.5-ish. Running back to the cars would have only given us about 12.5-ish, so we ran around the neighborhood behind Lowe's. I was still dying. I think once you get behind in nutrition, you're screwed. And I was. We got in about 13 today, which we needed about 14 so not too shabby.

Lesson Learned: EAT EAT EAT