Running Through The Pain

So I haven't blogged about my half-marathon training in awhile....here are the updates:

1) We are officially signed up for the race! $75 in....EACH! So there is no backing out now. Come out and support us if you want, November 13th, you can google the course online to pick a good watching spot. It's early, we start at 7:30, but no worries, I'll be running for a solid 3 hours, so come on down around 9, and I'm sure I'll still be tortoise-ing along.

2) I have shin splints! UGH. If you've ever had them, they are EXTREMELY painful. And you can get all kinds of advice, ice them, brace them, tap your foot, stretch, etc. But the only way to make them go away is to STOP the activity that caused them and let them rest. But I can't and I'm not. So I do all the things mentioned above and I run anyway. It's been terribly painful, and gotten better at the same time. I did lower my training in the past two weeks to try to give them some more significant rest, and that seems to have helped. I only have to run a 10k today.....ONLY, hahaha! But this week I've got to pick it back up for 9er next weekend. The race is only 3 weeks away, so I'm just gonna suck it up and RUN THROUGH THE PAIN (sounds like a good sermon in there somewhere....maybe I'll blog about that as a devotional later.)

3) I've officially reached another mile stone, last weekend we ran 8 miles. So proud of myself, really happy I accomplished it.....and it was the most miserable experience of my life. Seriously! In being retrospective on this whole race thing, I can say honestly, that I'm pretty proud of myself and have learned that I don't totally dislike running. I can see myself continuing to go out and run 3 miles 3-4 times a week, with maybe a long 5-miler on the weekends. I could even see myself training annually for a 10k, BUT I will NEVER do something of this length again. It's so much pressure, our lives are already insanely busy with two young kids, jobs & tons of activities. But each week we also have to fit in hours & hours of running. And then when you do a long run, you're wiped out for days! I literally couldn't walk normally for two days after the 8 miles. So I'm going through with it, but that's it for me, cross it off the bucket list. No Marathons or Triathalons for this gal. Ironically, after running the miserable 8 miles, I went out this week and had the best run of my life, 5 miles faster than ever (for me) and no pain.

4) I'm a sucker for the gear. As you saw in an earlier post, I already have my armband for music, my water bottle belt. And now I'm using energy gels! I need some cold weather running pants, and I get totally a ga-ga about all the great athletic clothes when I walk in REI or Dicks. I love the idea that I could walk into Starbucks on a Saturday morning in my cool athletic clothes and look totally hard core like the other runners I've seen in there in the past. To bad when I'm actually running, I look nothing like that.