Just Do It!!

My dear and darling friend Sue convinced me (somehow) to train for a half marathon which is in a couple weeks. I have run but one race before, and that was totally geared towards beginners with much hand-holding. SO, in all my wisdom, I decided to also sign up for the Charlottesville Ten Miler. It would be my first real race. I decided to think of it as my long run in preparation for the Half and, "Wow!! Look at alllll the other people who decided to run today, too!!" Despite the fact that I live here and have for a great many years, I am not terribly familiar with downtown Charlottesville. Who knew it had quite so many hills!?!

Now I know.

Sue had some superb excuse for not participating in the race yesterday (mmhmm, sure!) but her (well, I guess now our) friend Kevin drove down for it. He was kind enough to run with me for the first few miles before I finally told him to go ahead and run his race. But he was a great cheerleader for the time we ran together. When I crossed the finish line about 40 minutes after him, he was still waiting for me with water and a banana in hand!

At about mile 7 I felt the beginning of a blister on my inner arch. I was torn between trying to keep jogging some and not making it any worse than necessary. In the end, I walked the last 2.5 miles or so. A friend from work was one of the volunteers/spectators (she regularly does marathons) and so she accompanied me for the last 2. That was nice, because when you are then end of the pack, it is a bit discouraging. BUT, I did indeed cross the finish line and was smiling when I did. I am not entirely certain my legs could have managed even one more mile, though!

After the race I felt great. I stretched some and then my parents took me to IHOP for post race lunch, as Sue has trained me to do. :) I even had a nice massage in the evening to help relax and loosen things up. However, working the very next day--which means sitting at a desk for 10 hours--did NOT help in the achiness department!! I pretty much hobbled for my first several steps each time I got up from the desk. But after work I went for a short walk with a friend, and that helped loosen me up some. I do plan on more stretching tonight and perhaps a bit of Arnica gel rubbed onto the sore spots.

No great break for me, though! Perhaps one more day off, and then back to work. Just a short run planned for Tuesday though--nothing too crazy. I need to make sure my legs can do those 13.1 miles in 2 weeks. Whether or not I make it under the 3 hour time limit is a secondary concern, but I just want to be able to cross the finish and say, "I did it!"