Saturday morning my alarm went off bright and early (5:30...yeah, on a Saturday). I checked the weather and grabbed some random clothes. (Hey, I matched....sorta....black capri exercise pants, white long sleeve teeshirt and a teeshirt over that. Nothing fancy.) My sister in law had given me a muffin to try. I saved it for breakfast. (Yummy). I loaded up my water jug and I was out the door. I got there early. Signed in and went back to my car to wait. Running a race on your own isn't bad....the only issue is that waiting for it to start. So I did what I did last year at the Paws on the Pavement..I took my kindle and read in the car. I knew my friend Paula had said that she was going to arrive and register that morning......so I awaited her text. Eventually it came. We talked, checked out the bathrooms and headed to the start line.
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| Ready or not, lets get this race rolling! |
I was nervous. Seriously nervous. On Monday I couldn't stand up straight and on Saturday I'm running a 5k race? I vowed to accept whatever happened. Finishing would be the victory. However, I admit.....I still wanted my PR that I had been hoping for.
They started us off. Random thoughts went through my head. "weeeee....welcome back running." and "Hmmm....my back is a bit tender." About a half mile in I looked at Paula and said "my hip's a little achy". But I kept running. I ran straight for the first mile. From that point on I would run for 10 minutes or so and then walk for a minute or two. I was keeping pace with this one girl in a purple shirt girl. I was DETERMINED to catch up to her.. She was walking and jogging in intervals....and I would run up on her and just as I got to her back...she would start running again. GRRR I kept chasing her down though.
I got to about mile three. Hoooooo-leeee moley! I was feeling it. Where? My back? Nope, that was a bit tender but not bad. The hip the same. I was feeling it in the pit of my stomach and how weird...I was feeling lightheaded. About this time I passed the purple shirt girl....but she hung on my tail the rest of the way. I crossed the line. I crossed the line at 39:37. 1 minute and 17 seconds slower than my best ever pace. Disappointed...but actually tickled that that is all the time I lost considering I was running injured!
I slowed down after running across the sensor mats and walked up to one of the guys that was cutting the timing chips off of our shoes. I stood there while he worked on releasing my timing chip (yeah, I'm a bit anal when I put them on..those suckers are there to STAY). I honestly just wanted to tell him. "Dude, I have to sit down or I'm going to pass out!" Thankfully, he was pretty quick about it and I headed out of the finishing corral. Paula and I grabbed water and that did the trick.
We hung around and talked while we waited for the official times to be posted.
We decided to hang out and watch the rest of the runners come in.....so we moved to the side of he chute and watched. We started talking to the purple shirt girl. YAY...a new friend and running buddy for these runs! (Turns out she got into running but the people that started running with her stopped running...she still does it though...on her own....information has been exchanged to keep in touch!)
Paula and I decided that we were hungry...so we headed out to Waffle House for a breakfast/lunch. YUMMY!
I noticed it when I moved after our meal. My left hip....YIKES! OUCH! I just want to groan and say "not another injury". I'm sure it's probably just a strain or whatnot..but it stiffens up and hurts when I move after a period of inactivity. Sleeping last night....everytime I moved I was aware of it. NO FUN!
I got home...walked in the door. I went to the bathroom and then I got the call that my side hobby client was ready! WEEEEEEE I grabbed my camera bag and headed out the door.
Finally home for good at 2 or 3 PM. I had a friend stop by later in the evening. But the rest of the day was spent with laundry, light cleaning and whatnot. (And I started looking at the pictures....these are pretty much SOOC (straight out of the camera..no editing).
Busy day. A victory splashed with a little bit of pain and sprinkled with a lot of fun! :-)
