Another Saturday... another long run

What is with me and these long runs? I go in with the best intentions but it just seems like at some point they all fall apart... Like today for instance.

My intial plan was to start at 6am before meeting the group, knock out 5ish miles and then finish up with 9 more. Well that didn't happen. The alarm went off way to early. 6am became 6:30 and 6:30 became oh I'll just start at 7 with everyone else. I did have a better breakfast than last week. So I've got that going for me.

I expected this to be a solo run filled with deep thoughts (ok dumb thoughts about dumb stuff), so I was pleasantly surprised to find out I would have a bit of company. One friend stayed with us for one or two miles and then I had a new friend to keep me company for ten miles. We kept the pace a little faster than I expected, the weather was lovely, and the conversations were easy. What could go wrong? Well, first my Garmin start/stop button wouldn't work. So that was weird, but no sweat I'll just give it the ol hard reset when I get home. I dropped my new friend off at the parking lot and then I was off for 4ish miles. And that's when things got unpleasant.

Thankfully I had charged my Ipod last night (learned my lesson last week). So I put on some music and off I went! I immediately felt tired and disinterested with the rest of my run. My back started hurting, my legs hurt, I'm a giant crybaby... Oh lord. I took a salt pill to see if it would help with some of the cramping. But mostly my game face had entirely left the game. I was just over it. Again. Struggled through 3 miles. The End.

Now back to this Garmin. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that a hard reset isn't gonna help crap if the button doesn't even beep. And the button doesn't beep. And of course it's the most important button. That would be the start/stop button. DOH! But I can fix stuff right? I'm super smart right? Want to know what the inside of a Garmin 210 looks like? It looks like this

They are also made with the crappiest stripable screws ever. In case you were wondering. I thought I got it fixed. But it broke again after one button press. Sooooo...... now I've got a new Garmin on the charger and I'm a little bit poorer.

Today's run had a few results:

New runner friend. YEAH!!!!
I have a new Garmin.
I have some SEVERE sports bra chafing.
And I'm wondering when the heck I'm going to have a "winning" long run!?!!

Onward....