Running on the brain, sunburn on the head

Sunday's training schedule was an 8-mile run. I got up and did it fairly early, so I wouldn't mess up our weekly Panera grading date. I knew I wouldn't feel like running after we were finished.

Based on the weather, I probably would have felt like running after Panera. When I left the restaurant, it was almost 50 and sunny out. But, because I motivated early, I ran inside. On the treadmill. For. Eight. Miles. At 8:30, when I left for Gold's it was only 30 out, and I knew I couldn't slog through that temp by myself.

Thankfully, I got one of the TWO good treadmills (seriously, Gold's, it's 2010. Can we upgrade our 1987 model treadmills?). And, even better, the one I got was right in front of the TV, so I got to choose my running accompaniment for the morning. I chose E! Channel, because I knew I could watch The Soup, E! News Weekend and The Daily 10. Perfect fluff for 90 minutes of running.

The run felt pretty good. I wasn't dying at the end, but it did get pretty monotonous on the treadmill. I can't wait until temps get high enough to do all my runs outside.

Anyway, back to the title of this post. I must have had running on the brain after Sunday, because that night I had the strangest dream. It's coming back to me in bits and pieces.

I was in a strange city, running in a marathon. In the middle of the race, there was a "challenge" of some sort. We ran into an open stadium, and I remember that I changed my shoes (quickly, as if I was racing) and a man was shouting instructions to me.

"Run up the stairs, all the way, once. Then, run around the top of the stadium once, then run back down the stairs. Then, continue on your marathon way."

Uh, what?

I barely remember doing it in the dream, but I'm pretty sure I was climbing the stairs walking, then crawling, then pushing through it. Somehow I made it out of the stadium.

The next thing I remember from the dream is that there was a stop in a hotel room. I assume it was my room, because all of my luggage and gear was in the room. (How convenient that my lodging was right on the race route, and that I had remembered my hotel key card...)

Once inside my room, I removed the white visor I was wearing, thinking at that exact moment "Jeez. A visor? That was stupid. My part is going to be so sunburned."

Sure enough, the next scene I remember from the dream is me looking at the top of my head in a mirror to see a giant red and pink patch of blistered skin just above my forehead. Ouch.

I fashioned a covering for that sunburned patch out of something, slathered on a bunch more sunscreen on the rest of my exposed skin and headed out of the room to finish the marathon.

I can't tell you HOW I finished the race, because the last thing I remember as my alarm went off was walking out of the hotel room.

I do remember stumbling through my bedroom door into the bathroom because I wasn't fully awake. I hate being jarred from a deep, dreamful sleep by the darned alarm clock. It makes me off all morning!