I'm back!

Did I mention that I hadn't taken 4 weeks off from running in a row other than the weeks after each of my children were born?  Being injured was tough for me and I did not take it well.  Needless to say, when the doctor told me to take 4 weeks off I cut it short by a day or two (really, it was only a day or two) and didn't exactly go back at it as slowly as I'm sure he wanted me to.

Which leads me to today.  After a couple of mostly comfortable runs I decided to keep at it.  After 18 days of "keeping at it" I decided to run the Fox Cities 1/2.  I signed up for it a couple weeks before the injury and Sunday was supposed to be a 13 mile training run for Goofy's and since I was feeling pretty good on my runs I thought I would take it easy and see what I could do.

Race day arrived and I was nervous . . . much more nervous than I usually am before a race!  I kept telling myself it was time to see what I was made of, but deep down I was worried that I couldn't do it.  Was it because I had only been back for 2 1/2 weeks?  Was it because my longest run in 2 months was a 9 miler only 8 days prior?  Really, I just wanted to finish to prove to myself that I could do it.  I knew I could run a 1/2; I've run almost a dozen over the last few years.  But could I run a 1/2 with the limited training in the final weeks?  Was I tough enough, mentally and physically, to pull it off?  Would my injury rear its ugly head mid-race?

Well, I'm happy to report that all went well.  My husband and I started off together slowly.  I was mostly hoping just to finish, but I also wanted to do so with respect.  I wanted to run the entire race and I wanted to be under an 11:30/mile pace.  The first few miles hovered around an 11:00/mile pace, which was comfortable.  By mile 6, we were speeding up, but I still felt good.  By mile 11, I knew I would be okay and the last 1.1 miles were my fastest of the race (by quite a bit).  I have to admit I was giddy at the finish and I knew I had my mojo back!

Now it's time to train for Goofy's.  I have 3 1/2 months and a lot of injury-free miles to cover.