I love the introduction of Sean’s blog "Watch the highs and lows of running from a beginner's perspective." You just never know what will happen when you get out on the roads and trails.

Yesterday I headed out for my long run of the week. With hopes of finding company for the long run, I had e-mailed a few people in advance, mostly the six runners from the previous week. I was very thankful when I saw someone at the boat ramp waiting to head out on the trails. We planned on running together for awhile-finishing up in the parking lot, and then I would head out for a few more miles. I felt good as we started running. We explored new tails, got lost a few times, and had fun talking about races we had been in and other running related topics.

On our way back to the parking lot I started feeling really sick and tired. I asked my running partner walk for a minute. I quickly decided I needed to stop at the parking lot and not finish my intended total miles. The last several minutes of the "run" I had walk again-which my running partner was gracious enough to walk with me. Not only did I feel like a failure, but also like an idiot because I was making this guy walk, when he obviously could have kept running and probably wanted to pick up the pace. When we arrived back at the parking lot, we parted our ways and both drove off.

Literally, not even one minute down the road I had to pull my car off to the side of the road and ummm....how do I say this with out being gross? Well, let’s just say that I had to find a big tree and everything that was in my system, went straight through me. (That was still gross, but how else can you say it?) Afterwards I felt better. I grabbed my water bottle and walked around a little. I was actually feeling a lot better. I knew I still had a finish a few miles, so I headed back to the trails. I was feeling good for awhile...and then not so good again, but I kept running. Before I knew it, I had to make another stop behind a huge tree (yuck!) Eventually I finished the run and strange enough, I felt completely fine for the rest of the day.

Why did I get sick? I’m not sure. I know I didn’t drink enough water on Friday. I didn’t carb-load Friday night (unless you count the bread that went with my cheese burger) and I had played tennis (Fridays are normally rest days for me). Maybe it was a combination of everything or maybe it was just a freak thing.

In a very strange way, I am almost glad it happened because now I know that if I happen to get sick on race day, I know that it is possible to keep running and not give up.

I hope everyone had a good weekend! Happy Running this week!!