Bonk Bonk

The elusive bonk...not 'boink' like the funny sound effect on your kid's Saturday cartoons, not 'bong' like that funny looking vase on your neighbor's coffee table, not even the 'bonk' where you hit your head. Nope, this morning and Thursday night I experienced two true running bonks. You may not have had one recently, so let me remind you how it feels...exhaustion, not hitting your pace, brick feeling legs, breathing hard, side stitch, sometimes accompanied by dizziness and the urge to sit down and stop running.

Yup, I'm not proud of it, but I've had my first true bonk on a long run this season. We hit Mt. Bonnell and for the first time in my life I had to walk up the first half. Talk about an ego-buster. We got to mile 15 and I desperately wanted to stay sitting and felt the world spin a few times while I tried to gain my composure. I also felt like crap after our workout Thursday, so much that I had to walk a part of the cooldown. Bonktastic!

Thanks very much to Tara who stuck with me the last 4 miles of our 18-er this morning. Walking the uphills (and some parts of the flats) and jogging very slowly on the downhills got me to the end of 18, but it wasn't pretty at all. Picture me standing underneath the shower at the Rock when we were finished, trying to soak myself from head to toe to help with the exhaustion...and getting stares from many folks doing their 'stretching' after their run. It was not a pretty sight...I was that runner out there today who looked like she had completely overexerted and not prepared for the conditions. Whatever. Somebody probably should have asked me if I was okay...srsly.

No worries now. I have had my 3 bag + freezer-ice-bin ice bath and was able to soak for 18 minutes. The water was so freaking cold that Chad couldn't stand to soak his feet in it. I didn't even take a hot shower afterwards.