Now what?

It’s been 2 weeks since I ran the Maritime Race Weekend Half-Marathon. What have I done since then?….. almost nothing! A friend came over last Friday so that we could run together. It didn’t go well. My hip hurt, my foot hurt and I was out of breath almost before we started. We lasted 2 km, with some walking in there, before we threw in the towel and went for a 40 minute walk instead. The walk was great and really helped to stretch things out.

And that is my problem. I haven’t been stretching things out. I haven’t even been walking, let alone running. Sure, I have some pretty great reasons excuses that have kept me pretty sedentary. Hilary is going through daily radiation and weekly chemo appointments. We are at the hospital anywhere from 1 to 6 hours each day. My work has been great and lets me be flexible with my time so that I can drive her and stay with her for the appointments, but it means that I’m logging into work at 6:30 most mornings and sometimes I’m still online till bedtime. We also have the back to school and homework routine that we are trying to get used to. Mostly, I’m just too tired to even consider heading outside. If I have 30 minutes that I could use, I’d rather be sitting on the couch or surfing the web for some mindless down time. And I wouldn’t change any of it right now. My priority is my family. Yes, I need to take care of me, and I do, just not by running.

And yet in less than 10 days I’m signed up to run not one, but TWO 5k races. One Saturday and one Sunday. They are 2 of my favorite 5ks – the CIBC Run for the Cure and the NS Lung Run out at the airport. I have no expectations of setting any PBs for these races. Heck, if I run more then I walk I’ll be happy.

We have no plans this weekend. No appointments, no specific times that we have to be somewhere, no work and the weather is perfect. So I WILL get out this weekend and run. I will do my best to stretch things out and limber up so that I don’t end up injured next weekend.

After that? I have a virtual run on Halloween and then no other running plans. I’m going to have my gallbladder removed at the beginning of November on top of everything else. It’s a simply day surgery procedure with a pretty quick recovery time, but I’m not sure when/how I’ll get back to running once that is done. There is also the possibility of going back to TaeKwon-Do at some point. For now, I’m not making any concrete plans, but just taking life one day at a time.

And when I think I can’t do it, I’m going to look at this picture of me from the marathon and remind myself that I CAN do it.