I didn't run all week. It was 3 days before I could put weight comfortably on my right foot. Four days before I got most of the tightness out of my hamstrings. I had Sunday off to drive home and recover. I then worked day shift Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. By the time I got home from work Wednesday night, every bone and muscle in my body hurt... like I was to the point of tears. I was dead tired. I was starving. I ate half a bag of potato chips, took a hot whirlpool bath - basically submerged myself and had the jets beat on me forever until the water got cold, put on my compression tights, took a handful of drugs and went to bed.
Slept for 10 hours then laid around the house Thursday before going to work the night shift Thursday night. I was suppose to get off at 7 am on Friday, but, since I'm the crap magnet, I got a critical kid at 6:20 am that I had to LifeLine out of the hospital so I was an hour late getting home.
Plan was to try and get a short run in on Friday after I woke up in the afternoon but that just didn't get done. So, no runs at all this week... until today.
I debated on scratching out of this race. I didn't feel like I was in any shape to race but I was already registered. My legs didn't feel too horrible this morning. I knew it was not going to be another PR day. I told myself to just have fun.
It was beautiful driving down to the race this morning. All the redbuds and pear trees are still in bloom. Everything is green and wonderful. The sun was shining.
Once I got to the race, I realized a lot of the regulars weren't there. I know a lot of people had big races last weekend and the 500 Festival Mini Marathon is next weekend. I think a lot of people took this weekend off. I had planned to just take it easy and finish in the middle of the pack... however, I was having a moral dilemma with myself.
Sure, I can run easy and I would probably win my age group. Two weeks ago I won by 11 minutes. But, I don't want to win if I didn't put forth a good honest effort. I was at a race, not a group run. What would be the meaning of winning something if I didn't push myself? I looked around. I was one of the fastest women there today. Crap. I was going to have to push myself if I was going to be happy with myself.
Mile 1 - 7:20
Mile 2 - 7:47
Mile 3 - 8:20
last 0.1 - 1:27
Official Finish Time - 24:54
It was a beautiful day but very windy. Some of the guys gave me crap because I basically drafted behind them for 2 miles then passed them the last mile. I passed the second place runner at the 1.5 mile turn around. I thought she was going to catch back up with me because I didn't feel so great that last mile but she never did.
Ended up second overall in the women's race. Winner ran 22:08. Won my age group by over nine and a half minutes.
I got done and my right heel was killing me again. I tried to do a warm down but even that hurt my foot too bad so I just stretched and sat down in the grass until the awards were over. My foot's been on ice all day.
It's back to work again tomorrow. I have 2 day shifts, then 2 night shifts before I get a day off to rest up for my half next Saturday. The problem with work is that I'm pretty much on my feet all day. So, once again, I'm not sure if I'll get any runs in this coming week. I guess I'll have to see how the foot feels and how I feel when I get off work. Not sure if 1:50 is in the stars for me next Saturday.
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