Because of stress and injury, I ended up gaining 45 pounds over the past year. I stress eat. I thought that all the racing and training would have stopped that. It didn't. The stress I've been dealing with made it difficult to train properly. Motivation is hard when you're just not feeling it. So, when December came around and I had one more race to do, I was less than excited.
Who is going to be pumped up and rearing to go when they have extra weight to carry through each mile, less energy, and diminished endurance? No one. But I wanted to run one race per month this year. Not just 12 races. I decided that it was important for me to suck in my gut and just do it.
December is crazy busy and I needed the flexibility to run whenever it was convenient for me so, I registered for another virtual race. The race I chose was the US Road Running Reindeer Racer 10K. At the beginning of the month, I figured that signing up for a 10K would get me running again. I was wrong. I haven't run since the last virtual race I did.
It's the end of the month. End of the year. And it's time to accomplish my goal. So, I went over to the Orem Recreation Center, hopped on a treadmill, and started walking. Because of the lack of training, I was definitely taking full advantage of the run/walk options with this race. I warmed up better than I ever have before and then turned up the speed.
The first mile and a half felt like I was teaching my body what running is. The next mile and a half were really pretty rough. I was tired and worrying about how my feet were going to handle this. (My injury was neuroma's in each of my feet.) It was around mile 3 that I slowed down to a walk again. I needed to catch my breath and give myself a little pep-talk. A really good song came on and I sped up again.
This time, I was running a bit faster and did it for longer. It helped to have a handful of great songs right after another. I managed to keep this faster pace up for another mile and three quarters. Now, I'm pretty done. But I still have 1.7 miles to go. So, I brought the speed back down to a slow jog. It was when I slowed down that I could feel them. The evil heated bubbles on the bottom of my feet. URGH. Blisters are the worst. I pushed through the blisters as long as I could. And then power walked the rest of the way.
I thought I would be completely exhausted when I finished the 6.4 miles. But I wasn't. I felt really happy, proud, and satisfied that I accomplished what I set out 12 months ago to do. It was a great feeling.
My after shot of my race. (Sorry it's all fuzzy.)
This year has been a really good year of running. I'm glad I decided to do it.
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