Holy Sore Body Batman or The Warm Fuzzy Run

Ok ladies. Here it is. My summary of the half on Saturday. I know you're excited, so please go use the restroom first. ;) Let's get the back story in quickly. Ok, so since Max joined our family I have pretty much exercised like not at all. Well I think I have managed to run a total of like 8 times and lifted maybe 3 times and I haven't played soccer at all. So this week what do I do? Play soccer Thursday and lift Friday, KNOWING that I was going to run a half on Saturday. Brilliant, Manda. Brilliant. Needless to say I woke up Saturday morning already really sore. Awesome. So whilst getting ready I was giving myslef the pep talk.

"You can do it Amanda. It doesn't matter that you're body aches. You can go and run a race and not be competitive. You're not out to win any medals, just to run and spend time with your friend. No need to pass people. Just finish...just finish. You can do it."

And then I gave myself a thumbs up. Uhhhh......nerd alert!

Well we got there and had a moment of spasticness...I know...you're thinking, "Who? Mandori? Never..." But alas it tis true. But to read about that part you'll have to go to my blog to read about that. Then the race started and my body started screaming. Well my legs at least. Oh they huuuuurt, and we were only a hundred yards in! Blast. Not a good sign. Thankfully Lori is a running genius and had decided that we were going to run this half the Jeff Galloway way and run for 4 minutes and walk for 1. Well I'm pretty sure I would have walked all the minutes had Lori not been there pushing me along.
The first 5 to 6 miles of any race is the hardest for me. I never feel good until we're in about 7 miles...which ironically is when Lor starts hurting...so then it's my turn to push. But that job was ripped out from under me by some random boys CC team. They FLEW past us, not once, not twice, but three times! Talk about demoralizing. The second time they ran past us, they really ran through us, so I started dancing....tee hee...secretly hoping to hit one of them while doing so. I'll teach you to run past me like that! So when they came by the 3rd time I tried to take a pic. Well you can see how well that turned out. Blast. Foiled on all sides. ;)

Previous to speed boys, we had the opportunity to run through a cow pasture....or at least that's what we THINK it was. Or maybe it was just a trap to catch unsuspecting runners in the deep murky waters that ran through it. Ummmm....can I say, dry shoes? I hate running in wet shoes. Luckily they'd put some rockin sprang-your-ankle boards over the waters. We were grateful we made it out alive! ;)

In the end it was a great race. The last 5 miles felt great and went by super fast. Lor and I had a great chat which really did leave me feeling all warm and fuzzy. We made each other list 5 talents that we're grateful we have. Try it sometime. It's harder than it sounds. We finished the race strong which I was super impressed with considering she's sick and deaf and I was unprepared and sore to begin with. Our finish time was even faster than the first half we ran together 2 1/2 years ago. Ahhhh....look at how far we've come! It was sooooo good to be out running long distances again and to have some great chat time (though Lor did think we'd need talking points...bah!)

Thanks Lor for such a good run! It was so fun and I was so glad to be running with you again! And no we did not plan on matching. It was fate. So yes I did it! I proved to myself that I indeed could jump into running again. So of course when I got home I had to give myself a thumbs up again....only this time a little more awake and sweaty.

And that's when the pain set in. All I have to say is Holy Sore Body Batman.