the hill from hell

for reals

I'm not even being dramatic.

I can prove it since I can already feel that you doubt my sincerity.

The hill stole my car clicker.  How's that for being hellish?  Yeah, that's what I thought.

Are you thinking I have a habit of losing my keys since it's happened once before?  Well first of all, that was when the key fell off the key ring and I couldn't start my car - I could get in it.  This time I purposely locked my key in my car and I took the clicker with me and put it in my trusty Nike shoe pocket that turned out to be not so trusty.  Well, to be fair to Nike...the hellish hill stole the clicker, so Nike never really stood a chance.

I had my second marathon training session at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning.  Once again, I knew it wasn't going to be pretty when I only had a little over 4 hours of sleep AND I woke up feeling gunky courtesy of allergy issues AND the humidity was thick in the air.  We were scheduled for 4 miles and it wasn't going to be a simple 4 miles as in run the course at the park...instead it was all kinds of cRaZy which meant I was sure I was going to get lost.  Thankfully, the peeps in my group are quite considerate despite the runners being significantly faster than me and they made sure I knew where I was going.  We basically ended up in a church parking lot and there is a hill there and we had to run up and down the hill 5 times.  I don't do hills - like EVER - and when I do, they make me grumpy.  I did them and then I was grumpy.  Upon completion of THE HILL work, the half marathoners went back the way they came while the marathoners had to then run around the parking lot and then go back the way we came.  Once we finished the rest of our route, we had to do one timed mile.  I didn't have as quick of a timed mile as last week, but I didn't expect to considering I was having some breathing issues (courtesy of the allergies and the humidity).

Once I returned to our table to get my drink, I went to go get my clicker out of my shoe pocket because I had to get a check out of my car to pay the Bearkat Bash ladies for the 5K we will be doing on September 11th.  Come sign up with me!!!  Anyway, imagine my horror to discover the clicker wasn't there!  I panicked and freaked out, but one of the ladies that was at the picnic table said she thought one of our coaches had found one and shouted out his name as he was walking over to the bleachers where the rest of our group was.  He shouted back that it was over by the cooler on the table and voila - there it was!  I have never been so glad to see my little clicker, y'all.

I knew it was the hill - I knew it stole my clicker!  I got confirmation later, but I just want it known that I knew.

Then I walked over to the rest of the group that was having a lecture on "body in motion" by one of our coaches, my mentor.  It was there that I found out one of the girls, Rachel, had actually found my clicker.  She's awesome!  It was on the hill.  See, I did know.  Imagine if I had to go back and retrace my steps?!  She also gave me a book recommendation called The Glass Castle.  It's a memoir.  I ordered it on Amazon.com, but haven't read it yet since I'm currently reading The Other Bolyn Girl and Marathoning for Mortals.

Lesson Learned:  Secure my clicker via a more reliable means - I'm thinking zippered pocket or my SPIbelt.

Have you ever lost your key or clicker during a run?  Are you reading a good book?