Absence makes the runner grow exhausted

Since I signed up for membership at LA fitness, I had not had a run through Shady Valley, a long stretch of road by my neighborhood, since sometime back in late December. Today, I decided to re-visit my old running grounds. The weather was beautiful and it tempted me out of my sicky laziness. I ran all the way to the park and almost ran the whole way back until I reached the dreaded hill.

This hill makes up about a 1/4th of my run, there are no trees here to shield me from the harsh sun, and it's the last part of my trip. As treacherous and seemingly never-ending as this hill is, I usually run it almost all the way up, only having to slow to a trot near the end of it. Today, however, I couldn't even make it half way. I began to feel crazy stitches in my side and my calves and thighs were tightening up and burning like crazy. I quickly admitted defeat and began to power-walk the rest of the way up like a loser. BLAAAH.

Here is one of my all-time favorite commercials (inspired me to start running, actually):

If this ever happens to me in real life, I hope the killer is not chasing me uphill.