Well, if you've been following my blog, or well you actually know me, you know that I had taken a running hiatus for about two years. Since so many doctors said that running was bad for my back, knees and hips, I listened. There was, however, a nagging in the back of my head. Not only a nagging saying "no, I can do this" but also a nagging that said "I love this, I can do this." So even though 2 of the 3 professional medical practitioners I sought advice from advised surgery, I went with what my chiropractor/acupuncturist said: strengthen the muscles around the affected area, then go from there.
So after a year of doing various different work outs to strengthen my quads which would help my knees, my core which would help my lower back and hips, I decided to slowly start running again. Man how I missed it.
To welcome myself back into the running community, I decided to sign up for the Bridges to Brew 10k this year. There were many years I was gonna do it, but never ended up due to injury or fear. A 5k is a cinch, but a 10k? 6.3 miles? That's a little tougher to swallow. My sister-in-law has also been training. She used to hate running but a couple weekends ago, she ran the Roses 10k and has been encouraging me to join her for the Rum Run in Tualatin. I told her depending on how this 10k went...and well, it went great!
When I first started out on the run, I was a little worried about all the inclines! I forgot you actually had to run uphill to get to the Fremont Bridge. I was a little disappointed that we ran on the bottom half of it versus the top half, but nonetheless, I still took some pictures, never stopping. It was hard to get my pace running on an incline and man, it was so crowded. Every time I felt I had found my rhythm, there was someone in from of me to slow me down. Not only that, a few days before the run, I was starting to feel very fatigued and was fighting off a cold, so about half way into our 3 miles, I got a really bad headache. I passed one water area, but decided I'd have a drink of water at the next one and *poof* headache gone!
My personal goal was to finish under or at 60 minutes. I keep forgetting the added .3 miles to the 10k. And since it took me a little over to 50 minutes to run 5 miles during training, I figured I'd give myself some leeway, perhaps a 10 minute mile is where I'm at at the long distances, but I did better than I ever expected. I ended the 6.3 miles at 58:38 minutes! That's about a 9:27 minute mile, the pace machine tells me. That's awesome!
So what's up next? Well, I think I'll be signing up for that 10k Rum Run with my sister in law, then after that, we'll see. I have a couple friends that have said I've inspired them and it's terribly humbling, so I might join them for the 10k Run Like Hell later this fall, but I'd like to get back into finding other races through out the state.
My goal, however, for next year is to run the Sauvie's Island Half-Marathon. I think that would be a great birthday present to me!
And if all things go as planned, meaning I am healthy, no injuries and still enjoy running, I might just sign up for a marathon by 35. We'll see. It's always good to have far reaching goals, but of course, never at the cost of my health. So if my body says no to 26 miles, then I will listen and continue on to do my best times at the 10 and 15k lengths.
