Grateful for Every Mile (and the ARC Daisy 5k)

Daisies were given to all the female finishers on this Mother's Day race.  Yellow flowers, yellow ribbon on the medal - my favorite color and a good way to ease back into racing

Well, this is the longest I've gone without posting since I started this blog and the longest I've gone without racing since I got back into it a couple years ago due to my injury from the Gusher marathon.  Turns out, it was a metatarsal stress fracture and it put me completely out of running for 8 weeks.  In the grand scheme of things, I realize that's not much time, but after about 5 weeks, the eternal optimism I generally try to have (some call it naive idealism) toward life started getting worn down and each day not running became harder and harder mentally.  I was still working out, getting my sweat on in the gym on the bike and elliptical and in the pool doing deep water running (a mind-numbingly boring activity unless you have good company, which I had the good fortune of having) and some regular old swimming as well.  I tried to view the time off as a boon - a time to explore cross-training options that I could continue to do once I was back to running to ease some of the stress that the sport imparts, and I've always wanted to do a triathlon, so the forced swim sessions helped me get over the hump of intimidation of how to go about getting into swimming for exercise (I'd always been a handstand and flips in the water sort of swimmer before).  After a while, though, just imagining the Chattanooga race trails in my head while ellipticalling wasn't enough to hide the fact that I was stuck inside on a machine instead of bouncing around rocks and roots, listening to birds chatter and feeling the sun beat down on me.

Until 11 days ago.

I finally got cleared to run a week ago Tuesday after my PT session went well i.e. running on the treadmill with no pain for 20 minutes.  I was told I could run 30 minutes a day, up to 5 days a week (though not consecutively) with slightly longer runs on the weekend if all felt good.  As fate would have it, though, my first day to run in 8 weeks off fell on a day that I was massively busy due to a job application being due, and I never made it out to run that day.  I went the following day, however, to my running group's hill workout.  I had been told no hill repeats or track workouts, so I just ran around the neighborhood for my allotted 30 minutes while my fellow Fools (that's Al's Ship of Fools) ran their repeats.  It was wonderful.

The following day was even better - a trail run.  A close friend went with me to the trail, and we ran for 30 magnificent minutes.  I felt so elated and joyful after that run.  I felt like me again for the first time in 2 months. 

Since then, I've been on a few runs, some on road, some on trail.  I definitely feel a loss in terms of speed and endurance.  My legs feel heavy and sluggish, and I get sore from running, which only happened after hard races before, but I know that is all normal and all part of the recovery period.  I'm not sure how much endurance I lost just yet as I have been restricted to an hour fifteen minutes for my longest runs, though, if everything goes well this Wednesday, I should be released to run 'whatever I want' and I'll find out, so fingers crossed on both fronts of that one.  The Chattanooga race is a month away.  I had wanted to race it, but I realized that's not a reality now, so I am just hoping to have enough endurance to beat the cutoff times and just finish it.  I am happy just for the opportunity to try.

 My good friend Courtney and me with our age group medals

Today, I ran my first race back since the injury and my first 5k in over 15 years, the ARC Daisy 5k.  I actually have no idea when the last official 5k was that I ran, but I did a 5k time trial back in the fall in 20:37.  I knew I wouldn't come close to that today, but I was hoping for something between 7-7:30 minute miles, though, my confidence was low that that was still attainable.  I was pleasantly surprised, though, that I somehow managed to pull out a 22:28 (7:15/mile), and I'll take it.  It was a small race and so the time won me 2nd place in my age group.  Other friends ran, and we all achieved personal goals: running on a freshly healed foot, a new PR, 3rd place age group award, running the whole time without stopping...  It certainly helped to have good friends from both my running groups out there - the Fools volunteering on the course and my Synergy runners there at the finish line.  Constantly hearing my name being shouted helped me to not give in to the sluggish, sore, heavy tired legs that I seem to constantly have right now.

 Trey Hardee, the silver medalist in the decathlon at the 2012 Olympics, handed out the awards

I had only raced one race shorter than 13 miles in the past two years before today, but today, I am elated to have raced 3.1.  I am grateful for every mile I am able to run.  I have a full summer ahead finishing my PhD, looking for a job post-graduation, maximizing time spent with friends who are about to disperse across the country and those here whom I might be leaving if I move away, and the last piece of that puzzle has fallen back into place.  I am back to doing what I love to do and ever so thankful for the ability to do it.

Left: With my boot camper, Christina (her first 5k and a PR!)

Right: With my friend Adriana (PR!) and her friend Pippa (ran the whole way!)