We've all seen that picture a few times ( a meme I suppose it is), and chuckled, and thought, "yeah, pretty much," right? Except that little girl still looks cute. So, let me just start out by saying I'm not looking for a bunch of compliments here. I just want to complain. Whine a little, maybe? That's exactly what I've been doing for about the past month to my friends. Complaining and whining. It all started one day at the track here at work. I was out there giving it all I had (looking way funnier than that little girl, rest assured). Feeling good, doing "intervals", a "track workout." But when I finished, my right thigh didn't feel quite right. It felt tight. It kinda hurt. So, I took some ibuprofen and went on my way. Ibuprofen can fix almost any pain for me, so when it didn't make this one go away, I was a bit alarmed. I kept up with my training plan, not willing to let a little soreness get in my way. However, a few days later, it hurt even when I was just walking. Every time I put my weight on my right leg I thought "ouch." :( I took an extra day off, tried to rest, but mostly I just battled through the pain. It was manageable, but unpleasant. One morning Josh said something about a stress fracture, or a stress reaction. I totally freaked out. I googled. I self-diagnosed. I thought that could be a possibility, so I made an appointment at TOC. I had to wait a few days before I could get in though, so I didn't run those days. I felt a little silly going in there thinking I could have a stress fracture from my measly 20-mile/week running, and I could feel myself blushing when I answered their questions. After x-rays and a few tests of my legs, the doc concluded I have a quad strain. Said something about the fascia, and told me to take the rest of the week off, and load up on ibuprofen. Yay! Only a quad strain! I took the few more days off, felt incredibly lazy, and then worked my way back into running the next week. Now, while I'm incredibly happy that no signs pointed to a serious problem, my leg still hurts. I have been able to run through it for the most part, but I have had to stop a couple times. Now, in addition to this leg pain, I also developed a gnarly sinus infection. I couldn't speak for a good 5 days. At all. I ran through that too. People at work thought I was crazy. But, you see, I'm doing this
half marathon in a few weeks. I've worked pretty darn hard to get to where I am, and I don't want to lose that. So! As a stepping stone on my way to that half, I did the
Huff n Puff on the Bluff 15k this past Saturday. This was the 2nd time I've run this race in it's entirety (I've done the relay twice as well), and I knew I could get a PR :) I put on my cute new Nike tank, my running skirt, and my new bright pink PureFlow's and thought I was looking pretty good. Until I went and looked at the photos from the race that were posted online last night. This is where that funny little meme comes into play, because while I thought I was out there looking cute, this is how I actually looked:
Okay, in my defense, that is at the top of a hill, after a bunch of other hills, but that is not at all how I felt I looked. This other one is slightly better:
It's a good thing they didn't have a mirror there! That would have totally messed me up! And so I kept going, and I had a great race. I had 5 miles at <10 minute pace, one really slow mile (the bluff), and then 3 others that were right around 10 minutes. Of course my finishing picture is just awful too. Look at me - trying like heck to stay ahead of that much old lady! No offense to her, she's awesome, but I don't like to see all the 60 year olds who are out there in better shape than I am :p
That looks like some awful form. Sigh...I'm still happy with my finishing time. And I'm happy with the effort I put forth. So, I guess I need to work a little on my wardrobe selection. And possibly a little camera avoidance!
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