Oh. my. goodness. My first mistake was telling my husband that I had a goal-time in mind (34 minutes). He took off like a shot, weaving in and out of other runners, beckoning me to catch up and plowing the way ahead. I kept up for the first mile, but after that my strength began to flag and he had to slow down. I was NOT used to running at that pace! I had run 9 miles two days before, but not nearly as fast as we ran that 5K. My legs were burning and I was breathing heavily. At the sign that marked the beginning of the 2nd mile, I cried "What!?? We've only gone one mile?"
We beat my goal time, thanks to my darlingannoyinglyathletic husband. We completed the 5K (3.1 miles) in 30 minutes and 58 seconds. This was about a minute ahead of my mom-in-law, a minute-and-a-half ahead of my aunt-in-law, and three minutes in front of my father-in-law and sister-in-law. Joe was pretty proud of us (I'll admit that I was too!).
My second mistake was not stretching thoroughly after the finish line. I suffered for it the following two weeks- I had either pulled or strained my left hamstring, and my shins were once again swollen.
I was so frustrated and worried at this point. The days leading up to the half-marathon were dwindling FAST, and I needed to get healed and keep training! I couldn't believe that once again, my body had turned against me. In Fresno, my main problem was asthma: we moved out of the dirty air to SLO, so problem solved! Instead of being great, my body just failed in a different way.
A week after the 5K was Easter weekend. Joe and I went home to spend time with our family, and I fearfully joined my dad for a 10-mile run that Saturday. I took Ibuprofen after breakfast, and he had me put a hot compress on my leg. Once it was warmed up, we took off. Thankfully, Fresno is a lot flatter than SLO. I was able to complete the run just fine, praise God.
Dad even said he noticed an improvement in my strength and endurance since the last time we had run together. Watch out half-marathon!
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