running nightmare

I had my first (but probably not last) running nightmare last night. I was doing a half marathon with my friend who I used to run with in college. She was always stronger and faster than me. We got 4 miles into the race and for some reason I was running with all this baggage. Like a vest, a belt, a wagon filled with backpacks and stuff. So we had to stop because they forgot to sing the national anthem before we started. We all filled an auditorium and had to sit there for like 45 minutes while all our muscles were getting cold and we had to wait for the choir to arrive. I was complaining to my friend all these minutes.

So the choir finally gets up on stage and the announcer calls my friend to the stage to lead the song. I felt so bad for complaining because I didn't know it was going to be my friend up on stage. So then when it was over, I stayed around until everyone left because I was for some reason cleaning up the auditorium and waiting for my friend to say goodbye to all the singers. Then we finally got going and my friend says, hurry up we gotta get back out there before it starts raining. So we ran another mile and at a water stop my wagon fell apart. We were in another state from where I live, and apparently, I was not familiar with the course. My friend lives in Wisconsin.

So I tried to put the wagon back together but I didn't have the instructions. We saw a packing and shipping place where we could put the whole thing in a box and ship it back to my house, but the cost of doing that was more than the cost of the wagon. My friend goes, hurry up it's about to start raining. So I grabbed my raincoat, left my wagon at the shipping place and started running again. I asked my friend how we were going to meet up with her husband and kids after the race and she was like, I have no idea. I asked her, don't you use Strava beacon or have some way to track each other, she's like no.

We keep running and it starts raining so we put on our raincoats and then she goes, yeah it's about to get super hilly. And at that point I guess I had enough so I woke myself up. It was one of those dreams where it feels so real, when you wake up, you're not sure if you were really in Wisconsin. So far, we have decided NOT to do the Disneyland 5k in 2025 and I have registered for the LA Marathon. I think this is my brain's way of processing a worst-case scenario.