I did it!

So, I have been running regularly since college and have done a bunch of 5/10k races for fun.  I have always wanted to challenge myself and do something a little longer but just never felt like I had it in me to run for longer than an hour at a time.  Somehow, back in August I was feeling more ambitious than usual and decided to see if there were any upcoming races nearby.  My great and amazing friend, Sina, has several of these under her belt and she found one that was on a Saturday in Cincinnati......which is quite an anomaly.  We signed up and planned out our training schedules for the next 8 weeks....see mine below.  

The X marks are for the sessions I did and the scribbled squares are the ones that didn't happen.  Things were going great for the first few weeks but after my 9 mile long run I was super sore.  I didn't think much of it until the next week when no amount of stretching would help.  I did something to my right quad/knee that sent lighting-bolt pains up my leg with every step.  Aaaaaaah!  I have never actually had a sports injury and it was so frustrating to deal with....I suppose I now have a smidge of sympathy for athletes who play hurt (not that I consider myself an "athlete" by any means at all....far from it actually)

These things became my best friends and I even went and got some actual therapy to try to help my leg......it was quite thrilling actually since I spent many years treating people in these situations and this was my first time as a patient.  (I even secretly adjusted the e-stim levels when the tech wasn't looking......yes, I am a nerd)  Anyhow, they tried this Active Release Technique (ART) which was very interesting and probably quite helpful if you aren't planning on going out the next day to test your limits.  

I ended up missing my 11 and 12 mile training runs to try and let my leg recover a bit.  I was super nervous by the time the race came around.....and hoping that I wouldn't embarrass myself by collapsing halfway into the thing.  Lucky for me to have a great (true) friend who hung with me and didn't leave my side even though she could have easily finished at least 20 minutes faster.  Seriously.....there at the end we were passed by several elderly ladies, a pregnant woman, a man pushing a wheelchair, and many others who appeared to be in less than stellar physical condition.  It was embarrassing but also quite funny looking back now.  Our families waited patiently for us at the finish line and it was so great to see them there cheering us on.  

The original pace/goal was under 2 hours and due to my last few miles of hobbling, we finally came in at 2:19......the only bright spot for me is that I have plenty of room for improvement!  

(and, I feel like wearing this sticker for the next month.....)

 I can't tell you how good it felt to put that last X on my paper......Yeah!