Day 87: Scared.

Well, I guess it was bound to happen at some point on this trip. I just flat ran out of gas. Completely. Yesterday was so hard on me, and I don't think I was even close to recovered today. I tried to beat the heat by starting my run at 7:30am. Didn't work. I was drenched in sweat a mile in, and my legs were giving out on me by mile 2. It was all I could do to complete the first 5 miles today. Then, I had to do what I never dreamed I'd let myself do out here. I quit. I had officially used up everything my body could give, and I couldn't take another step. These last 2 days have been very unnerving, and scary, not because I am worried about my physical state. The scary part is that this is coming just as I realize that I need to pick up the pace to get home on time. Today was quite counteractive to that mission. I spent the majority of the day lying in the back of the van, trying to recover. I figured I'd wait until sundown and see if I could squeeze out 5 or 10 more miles. 10 was preferred, because it would have at least kept me on the pace of 20 miles a day. As my sister reminded me, I am incredibly OCD about things like that. Unfortunately, all I could muster this evening was another 5 miles, bringing my grand total for the day to 10 miles. That's right, only 10 miles. Now, on a day I was expecting to be 15 miles ahead of the regular course, I'm 5 miles behind it!! Thus, the scared feeling in my mind. The heat and humidity show no signs of letting up anytime soon, so I am gonna try to get up and start running by about 6:30 tomorrow. I am going to have to adjust my schedule for good if the weather keeps up like this, because I just cannot physically handle 20-25 miles a day in this heat and humidity. Gonna try to hit the hay now. Wish me luck for tomorrow. Thanks to Abby Wisdom-Williams at Cheney State Park, whose son has served two tours in Afghanistan, for supporting the Wounded Warrior Project (Good luck with the raccoons). Thanks to everyone at Creations Restaurant in Mount Vernon, KS, for feeding me (after closing time) and for the positive feedback. Subway coming in to Wichita on route 54, ditto. Gotta send out a huge thank you to Holly Paugh for hooking us up with your friend, Jim McAnarney. And thanks to Jim for letting us stay at your lakehouse for the next couple of nights. Yeah, that's right, we are staying at a lakehouse!! Beats the heck out of the back of the van in the humid weather, haha. Hoping for 20 miles tomorrow, then awesome dinner with Holly and Timmy at the Texas Roadhouse tomorrow night. Finally, a rest day on Tuesday!!