Why?

today i did the scheduled 16 miles. i didn't do it yesterday because i did not get up in time (wanted to try to get it done before it got hot) and i decided it was going to be too hot in the afternoon to run, besides, we were having emily's mom over for supper. so i decided to get up this morning and run before church. my plan was to start at 6am. by the time i got everything ready and out the door it was 6:20. i thought i still had time to make the run and get to church by 9:45, wrong. i finished the run at 9:44, and even if i had gone straight to church, was really in no shape to be there. so i stretched a little, layed down for a little and then took a shower and got ready.

here are my splits, didn't use heart rate monitor, it is starting to dig into my sides a little.

.5= 5.29
1.0= 11.11 5.42
1.5= 17.01 5.49
2.0= 22.58 5.57
2.5= 29.02 6.04
3.0= 35.07 6.04
3.5= 41.04 5.57
4.0= 47.11 6.07
4.5= 53.15 6.04
5.0= 59.34 6.18
5.5= 65.38 6.04
6.0= 71.56 6.18
6.5= 78.01 6.04
7.0= 84.05 6.04
7.5= 90.05 6.00
8.0= 96.09 6.04
8.5= 102.28 6.18
9.0= 108.43 6.14
9.5= 115.55 7.11
10.0= 122.10 6.14
10.5= 128.39 6.29
11.0= 135.33 6.54
11.5= 142.09 6.36
12.0= 148.53 6.43
12.5= 154.50 5.57
13.0= 161.54 7.04
13.5= 168.38 6.43
14.0= 175.50 7.11
14.5= 182.40 6.50
15.0= 190.24 7.44
15.5= 197.29 7.04
16.0= 204.09 6.39

during the run i drank 4 pounds of gatorade and took 4 of the gu gels. when i got back home i drank another pound and a half of tea. after that i weighed myself and was still 4 pounds lighter than just before the run. at mile 5 and 1/2 i got chased by a boxer. at mile 9, i was back home to switch out my water bottles (i bought 4 extra with 2 extra belt hooks so i can carry 6 bottles at a time or switch out all 4). then i was back on the road. i did walk for 1 minute at mile 12 and 1/2, 1 and 1/2 minutes at mile 13 and 1/2 and 30 seconds at mile 14 and 1/2. one other notable event is that i had placed a piece of tape on my right big toe because last week my second toe had rubbed a pretty big blister on that toe. however, the tape did not help. i didn't cover the entire big toe and ended up getting a blister on the big toe anyway, and the tape rubbed my second toe raw. it started hurting me right around mile 1 and didn't stop until i was finished. also, just after mile 15.5 i was heading up the last and biggest hill and right as i got to the top my right side started hurting really bad, making it really hard to breathe. i finished the run but that made it very tough.

thought of the day: this thought came to me as i was on the home stretch and my side and toe were aching extremely bad. i thought to myself, "why do i want to hurt this bad just to be able to say i have run this far?" the only reason i can come up with is because i am pretty dumb. i know it is not because i enjoy pain, i do not enjoy pain. can't really come up with anything else right now. after thinking about it for a minute, i guess the answer has to be elk. i want to be in great shape when i go to the mountains hunting in less than a month.