I lost my smile...

...but, don't worry, I found it. It only took about an hour, a breakfast taco, some chocolate milk, some chatting with Amy and Blythe, an ice bath, my compression socks, and a little time on my couch. Okay, so maybe a little over an hour.
I actually didn't realize that I had lost it completely until Katy called me this afternoon to check in because when I passed her on the trail today I didn't smile at her. And neither did Blythe. And she suspected something was up when neither of us had a smile for her! And she was worried. (That's some serious teammate support right there, people...another moment of T3 greatness!) At that point in our 20.6 mile run (we were at mile 20.3 or so when we saw Katy and Priscilla), Blythe and I only had eyes for the MoPac bridge which was going to offer us a chance to walk and stretch out our weary legs. I was feeling light-headed. We both looked like we'd gotten caught in a rain storm (which given the morning thunder would have been believable but it never did rain on us) but it was actually all sweat. And as much as we enjoy one another's company, we just needed that run to end! Thankfully I did wave at Priscilla and Katy so I had not lost my manners all together. (They looked awesome, by the way, and Blythe & I were wishing for their energy!)
Anyway, after some stretching - which confirmed how hard my legs had been working...they were so resistant to movement! - Blythe and I made our way to Whole Foods to meet up with Amy who'd run the first 14 miles with us. We had a good recap of our run. Actually we all felt pretty good on the first two loops and then Blythe and I agreed that the last one was where it really got tough. Blythe's knee started bothering her. I was getting a little nauseous. At one point Blythe said, "This is where we get tough, right?" My response: "Yes...one foot in front of the other all the way to the MoPac bridge." Thank God for Blythe today (and every day we train together!). I did at least feel like I did a little of my part "pulling" on the second loop - been feeling like poor Blythe has been pulling me a lot lately. But all in all, it was a team effort for sure today.
We conquered the distance. We conquered the humidity. But I'm not going to lie and say that it didn't take its toll on us (and apparently on everyone else who was out there today whom I talked to this afternoon). Everything from tummy aches to nausea and light-headedness and sore muscles...thank you, humidity!
At WF, I finally forced some food down - normally I scarf it down after a run but I wasn't feeling up to that today. And we sat...and we talked...and we sat...and we sat. And finally we decided we needed to get moving and get ourselves into our ice baths. Man was I moving slowly!
The ice bath was a good thing and I tried to enjoy it (?!) for as long as possible - probably around 12 minutes total - before hopping out (crawling out?) to plop myself on the couch for a little rest. Caught up with some friends and family and the forced myself to work...had to count AP exams. Moving the exams to a secure spot involved lifting heavy boxes which was not exactly in the cards for me today - that run had taken it out of me! So I did lots of walking back and forth between rooms in the academic center to organize the exams...don't worry, I had my compression socks on so my legs might have a chance at being 1/2-way decent for my ride + run tomorrow. Quick trip to the grocery to shop for the week and also get dinner for the night (I didn't have my usual energy to cook) and then home again, home again.
I'm ready to head to bed to rest my weary body before tackling 90 miles on the bike tomorrow + a 1 hour run. I think this is going to either be or at least feel like our toughest weekend of training yet. Certainly a weekend where you have to know why you're training for something like an Ironman. And even though the thought crossed my mind today and I think I even asked out loud, "And why are we putting our bodies through this?" That question was more in disbelief at what we'd just done than it was really questioning all of our training. The truth is that even on a night like tonight when I'm perfectly content to sit around and put my feet up instead of going out on the town, I couldn't be happier with my decision to tackle an Ironman. Yes, even as tired as I am, I have an odd sense of life about me. And even though I lost my smile for a little while today (going to work on that for the next time I'm feeling defeated by a run...want to have it for my teammates!), it and my enthusiasm for all of this has been found again. Not too long or hard of a search...don't think either thing ever went very far - only had to look back into my heart to find them again.
P.S. Big happy birthday to my dad! Love you, dad!