Just for Fun

Yes, I am a bad, vile, horrible person who has not been blogging my runs. Oops. I get too easily distracted :) So I did go running last week, but not as much as I should have. Actually the week started out really good. Monday and Tuesday were both great runs! My 2.5 mile route was starting to feel pretty good. But I went out on Wednesday and my shins were killing me by half a mile. I only made it about a mile and then I had to limp myself home and get some ice. So the Thursday I thought I could use a break and I had to spend most of the day in Albuquerque anyway. And Friday and Saturday I was just plain lazy and there is no excuse for it.

So now I am in PANIC mode! My race is Saturday! AHHHH! Actually I am feeling surprisingly unstressed about it. Not to long ago I decided I didn't care enough about it to get stressed and I wasn't going to worry about how I did. And then Laura called and said she would run with me so I think it will be fun. There is just a little bit of panic knowing that it is the week of the race and I am no where near where I wanted to be. But it is okay. I might try to go out one day this week and see how much of the course I can do before I die. Then I can panic. Ha ha. Anyway, I am actually looking forward to it.

So since I have been a lazy bum I didn't want to overdo it today. I did 1.5 but actually wished I had done more. Tomorrow I will kick my butt back into shape :) 

So we are pretty sure that Simeon has decided to give up sleeping for lent. Ugh, I don't even remember the last time he took a nap that was longer than an hour and yet we still have to pull his two little teeth to get him to take an afternoon nap. He just wants to play so badly! Fortunately he hasn't been really fussy, only a little bit. He knows when he's fussy we try to put him to sleep so he's careful to act cheerful :)

Anyway, I was having Simeon frustrations today. Seth has tests next week so he is in panicy, study and ignore Kristina mode. Just kidding. He is just really busy and he does have a lot of studying to do. So It's been a rough two weeks. So like I said, I was having Simeon frustrations. Fortunately he went to bed without a fight (something that has become rare as of late), and was asleep by 6:45. It was still light and warm and so I laced up my running shoes and headed out. I told Seth that if I really needed to pound something into the pavement and I'm sure he'd much rather it be my shoes than him :). So because I had some anxiety to burn off I ran my first mile pretty good pace, much too fast considering that I wanted to run 3 miles today. My left knee was hurting, which I thought was odd since it is always my right knee that hurts. My shins weren't hurting in that first mile though, so I was grateful.

The area I added to my route had an uphill, so that is good to help me prepare for running up main street on Saturday (Ugh). 3 miles is really an estimate but I'm sure it has to be close. I will measure tomorrow. Anyway, aerobically, I felt great. No breathing problems, no side stitch. Unfortunately the rest of me didn't take it so well. The last two blocks I think I was really just hoveling and limping at a slow running pace. My shins were killing me and my ankles felt like they did after I had the baby, all swollen and stiff. So I was really glad to shuffle back only my street. Still, I'm glad that I won't have to have that experience for the first time on Saturday ;) Plus that will give me tomorrow to recover and Friday to have an easy run. I've found that after three days of good runs outside my shins can only take about a half mile or so. So tomorrow they deserve a good rest.

Wow. That is all I can say about this race. Actually I also have to say that I am extremely glad that Laura came to run the race with me because I don't think I could have done so well without her. 

Anyway, my goal for this race was 40:00. Laura asked me what my secret goal for the race was (the one I was too embarrassed to tell anyone). My secret goal was 35 mins but I was sure that highly unlikely. In fact I thought it was basically impossible for this race. So 31 minutes! (don't know the seconds, sorry). I'm ecstatic! I'm more than ecstatic. I'm ecstatically ecstatic. It almost makes me not want to swear off any more races :) And niether my knee or my shins hurt during the race, though my shins hurt after. It actually felt pretty good. And I didn't even throw up out of nervousness--that in and of itself is a big achievement.

But yes, very great race. Thank you so much Laura for running with me. It made the run go by so much faster and it kept me distracted. And I think it picked up my pace quite a bit.

 All in all it was a much better experience than I thought it would be. I was having some terrible flashbacks from high school this morning, but my race was way different than that. It was actually fun :) So thanks Laura and thanks to everyone who encouraged me to do it :)