Endurance Family: Marathon Training Week #14

What a day! We got it worked out so Skyler and I could run together for our last long run up Black Star Canyon. It was our anniversary activity and I was excited! At the last minute we decided to bring the pup, which turned out to be the reason for our demise.

We didn't plan well and didn't pack enough water for all 3 of us. It was an unbelievably hot day! By the time we got to the top, I was drenched in sweat. Pumpkin was doing great too.

We began our descent and within 2 miles I knew Pumpkin wasn't going to make it. We were all super thirsty and I was trying my best to conserve our water. At mile 10 of 15.5 Pumpkin laid down. That's where our run took a turn for the worst. What could we do? The only way back to the car was down 5 more miles. We had to coax Pumpkin to walk. She would hop from shaded patch to shaded bush. We both gave all of our water to her. Skyler even carried her part of the way!

About 2 miles from the end, I ran ahead to get more water. I got 2 full water bottles from a group of hikers. I thought it would be plenty, but when I returned to Skyler and Pumpkin, we devoured it within a minute. We slowly walked back to the car. We all felt defeated. I especially felt awful because of how bad all of my runs had been lately. When would my speed return?