What went wrong in my hood?

I took up running a little under 2 years ago. I've lived in my house since 2007.  Yesterday was the first time I've ever put my runners on and gone for a run out my back door.  That's right, the past 2 years, ALL my runs have been on treadmills, at sports centers, near work, in a friend's neighbourhood or at city parks. Yesterday I was in a hurry and had to get my first 10k in as quickly as I could so I could get started on my Halloween baking (delicious annual tradition).  I thought I'd save time driving somewhere to run and just go from my house.  It's another great day in Cowscary, all blue skies and crisp fall air, I have my water belt on and I think I'm in for an awesome run.

Guess what?  The Signal Hill area is ALL hills. I knew this, obviously, but didn't really think about what this meant until I was about 300 meters from my back door and hit my first steep hill. No problem, I think, I'm a REAL RUNNER now, this will be fine!  I spring up the hill, then hit my second steep hill about a minute later and the third on just as my Nike + told me I had 1k down.  I walked for the first time at about 1500 meters, and  this was when I started to worry.  I had picked uphill from my house to start so that I wouldn't have to run uphill for the back half of a 10k run, which I guess was smart, but man.  At the 2k marker, I was walking up the steepest hill yet, gasping so loudly I could hear it over the Black Box blaring from my iPod.  I tried to find some level patches for swticthbacks to try to regain my breath, but the next 2k weren't much better and I started getting stitches in my side, which meant I was periodically running with my right arm straight out in an attempt to make the stabby pain in my side go away.

At 4k, I did something I don't think I've ever done before on a run. I paused the Nike + (so it wouldn't know) and sat on a bench to try to catch my breath and make the pain in my side diminish.  I drank some water and ate some of those high carb jelly beans (that I just LOVE...they're like salty jelly beans and they taste awesome!) and was probably on that bench for 5 minutes, willing myself to keep going.  I kept running away from my house even though it was still uphill because I knew if I headed back, I would quit. I was exhausted and this run was hard. I just couldn't catch my breath and my lungs and stomach hurt.  The more hills I ran (or walked) up, the more my legs started to hurt too.  And I walked a lot.

At the 6k mark, I started back home, hoping the way back would just be all fun shrieking arm-waving as I barrelled down hill after hill back to my house. Since I wasn't doing the flat switchbacks on the way back, I got to my house at 8.85k.  Here, I had another sad running first. I QUIT.  I've never cut short a run before and it was horrible.  Even as I walked up the driveway, I told myself that finishing the last kilometer would take just 10 more minutes even if I walked it all, but I couldn't muster up the emotional energy to do it.  At this point, a decent time was out of the question, but I still couldn't even will myself to finish. Bryan came into the kitchen to find me lying on the floor in a pool of my own sweat, too tired and defeated to even ask for a glass of water.  I lay there for quite a while feeling shame (and pain) before I got up (slowly). 

It's not all bad, I learned that maybe it's OK to listen to my body once in a while. I haven't had side cramps like that since I was a kid, and I really didn't want my lungs to burst out of my mouth. And, I have to say, right behind my house is a ravine that has a bunch of paths that are actually really pleasant that I had never thought about running through before. I bet that if I ran up the ravine for 2k, then turned around and came home, it would actually be a pretty great 4k hill training run.  As a 10k, my route stank, but I'm totally going to give it another shot in the very near future on a much shorter run.  Oh, and I guess I have to wash the salt stains off the kitchen floor too.