Well, That Was Embarrassing

57 mins.
7.5 miles

This morning we broke from the norm and headed out to Reedy Creek Park for our run. The park is located in far north Charlotte, near UNCC, and has several miles of dirt and gravel trails. The guys and girls teams started out together but quickly strung out, and I found myself running with Holly and Jenna (the new asst. coach) for the remainder of the run. The pace was fairly slow but the run was still challenging due to the constant undulating hills. Plus, none of us were very familiar with the trails and we were constantly approaching forks in the road with no idea of which way to turn. Half the time we picked an option that took us somewhat in the right direction and the other half of the time we ventured a few meters down a trail only to realize it wasn't the one we needed to take.


A wintertime view of the Reedy Creek Park trails

Despite the lack of structure on this run, all was well until about five miles in. At that point my right hip flexor, which had been feeling slightly fatigued throughout the run, really started to bug me. The muscle almost felt like it was strained or pulled, though I have no recollection of doing anything yesterday that might have aggravated it (although my hips did feel vaguely out of whack during the workout), and the feeling of mild discomfort intensified dramatically over the remainder of the run. I was grateful to see the parking lot come into view just after 55 minutes as I hobbled to the finish.

At that point I figured the hip flexor was going to be the extent of my problems. Since we were waiting for several members of our team to return from their runs, I sat down on a nearby ledge and tried to relax. After a few minutes I started to feel vaguely nauseous. A few minutes after that I started seeing spots--sort of like what happens when you stand up too quickly after sitting down for a long time. I remember turning to one of the girls next to me and mumbling, "I think I'm going to pass out." Aaaand that's all she wrote. Next thing I know, I woke up from what felt like a lovely nap to discover about a dozen people standing over/around/behind me trying to ascertain whether or not I was dead. It certainly wasn't one of my finer moments. Jordan, of course, was still running and was completely oblivious to the entire situation. Worst. Boyfriend. Ever.

So anyhow, after a few minutes of laying down and a few swigs of Gatorade I felt relatively normal. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure why this happened, as nothing like this has ever occurred before. My guess would a combination of dehydration (3 bouts of physical activity yesterday, most of which took place in the heat), exhaustion (still not caught up on sleep from the last two weeks and the travel days) and really low blood sugar. Had I not already decided to skip the evening run due to my hip flexor, this would've definitely solidified my decision.

Need I comment on the irony of me staying healthy through the entire summer, then getting banged up literally two days after my return to Charlotte? Yeah, I didn't think so.