Funny Coincidence

Sunday I headed out with Rhonda for our weekly long run.  We started from the Bentonville square and I asked Rhonda to point in the direction that she wanted to go and that I would get us a route from there.  She pointed to the SW of where we were...the only route I could think of in that direction was hilly.  We headed off for it and knew that it would be tough with the hills and the heat we had going on. 

There were some long steady hills in the first few miles but the big hill wouldn't hit until mile 6-7.  I swore that the hill would never end! Luckily the top of the hill signified a water stop at the Braum's restaurant.  I might have guzzled a little too much ice cold water but it was good to refill our bottles since we were both empty.  From there, we had to trick ourselves into running past our starting point in order to get closer to our distance goal. 

After our water stop and the yummy cold water, I was mentally starting to check out of the run.  The appeal of stopping and walking was just so strong and all I wanted to do was finish my ice water.  Rhonda was also struggling but we tried to cheer each other up.  As we were passing mile 8, a car pulled up next to me.  The woman in the car asked me where to find the local cemetery.  She was just a few blocks from it and I pointed her in the right direction. 

As she drove away, I got an inner chuckle.  It just cracked me up since I felt like I was dying in the run right then and she asked where to find the cemetery.  Now, a day later it's not that funny but in my oxygen deprived brain it was funny.  We passed by the cemetery a few blocks later and I thought of a Runner's World question that I once read on whether it is insulting for runners to run through cemeteries.  My dad used to always run through a local cemetery as part of his route and I always thought it was peaceful when I would join him on those runs.  Either way, I looked as we passed but didn't see the woman that had passed us.  I really hope that I didn't confuse her on how to get there. 

We ended up with 11 miles for the day and then a cooldown walk of around 1/2 mile after.  We were shooting for 12 miles but Rhonda's IT band started to act up so we cut it short to be safe.  We both agreed that it looks like we are skipping Spring and heading straight to Summer this year.  It was a hot and humid long run and there wasn't a dry spot on my clothes when I was done. Yuck!