Since we’ve been talking about a bunch of non-running things lately, some people have been asking if I’m still running.
Yes, actually, I am.
I’ll admit that when I got home from 52 half marathons, I was – a wreck is overstating it. But, I was tired. And my back kind of hurt. I took a break – not necessarily because I was burnt out, but just ’cause my body didn’t seem to want it any other way.
I saw a chiropractor who was very helpful. (Thanks, Dr. Levon!)
And then I kind of didn’t push myself for a while, ’cause I don’t know… I was lazy, or I was tired, or I was scared of making my newly aligned back feel uncomfortable again.
But, in the past couple of weeks, I have definitely gotten back in the game.
I was feeling stressed (mainly about kidney stuff, of course). And I just went on a run because I needed it. I didn’t know what else to do about my stress, so I just went running. It’s amazing how quickly it all comes back.
I’m not going crazy. I don’t want to get any overuse injuries or anything. But I am definitely back in the gym almost daily, working my way up – getting more miles in, getting speedier. And as always, it adds a lot to my life. I always feel better when I’ve worked out. So, I don’t know what possibly took me about 2 1/2 months to really, seriously lace my running shoes back up.
But, they’re on.
As I was working out more and more each day, I started to really get a desire to do another race. I actually won a free entry last year to this year’s Capital City Half Marathon in Columbus, Ohio. So, I was signed up.
But, I wasn’t actually going to do it. Paying the money to fly all the way to Ohio for about a day? I love going to visit, but it didn’t seem all that worth it. After all, how free is an entry really, if you’re paying hundreds of dollars to fly to the race?
Plus, even if I wanted to do it, I couldn’t make it work timing-wise, ’cause I work nights. I don’t get off on Friday nights until Saturday morning at 5am. So, how could I be in Ohio in time to start a half marathon?
However, we (the staff of the show I’m working on) recently got the news that we happen to have this week off work! We finished working on all the footage they’d currently shot. So, to give the field some time to catch up, post gets the week off. I took that as a sign, grabbed a plane ticket, and will in fact be running Cap City on Saturday, May 4, after all.
So, yes, I’m still running. Yes, I have a race coming up. And yes, after the race, I’m going to continue working in the gym to become a faster, happier marathoner.