Longest Run Ever!
So, I had my surgery three weeks ago tomorrow and it went well. I had a little bit of an issue coming out of anesthesia but nothing major. The recovery was a lot harder than I expected. I'd never had surgery before so I was delusional about how long it would take for my body to recover and how crappy I would feel. I ended up going back to work on Wednesday and didn't really get much done. I stopped taking my pain medicine and then I realized how much pain it was disguising! I also couldn't run for a full week and that was tough. I was concerned it would mess up my half-marathon training schedule since the weekend I had the surgery I was supposed to run 9.5 miles. I still can't breathe entirely through my nose when I run if it's cold outside since it's not healed yet and the cold air hurts! I go back for another post-op visit on November 4th and hopefully by then the swelling will be completely gone and it will be all healed up.
I can definitely tell a difference though already! I was able to get right back on track with my running schedule, which was a relief. This weekend we did the Race for the Cure. Even though it's for a great cause I really don't enjoy doing that race at all. So many people do it now and it's too crowded. Also a lot of people do it who don't know race etiquette. People who were walking were at the front of the pack and we had to dodge around them when the race started. It's frustrating and also dangerous. Last year, a woman fell trying to get around people who were walking in the beginning. I wish they would announce to people that if you are walking to line up at the back of the pack. We also paid extra this year to get chips to officially time us. We had our ipod nano's to time us as well. Well when I crossed the finish line, my nano told me I ran it in 35:46, which is a personal record! I shaved four minutes off my last 5k time in August. But the official clock said 36:40 since it took us almost a minute to get to the starting line after the starting signal was given. If you have a chip, races don't start your individual official time until you cross the start line, there is a sensor there that reads it. Imagine my surprise when I checked the times online and mine said 36:40! My mom and I realized that this race did not have a sensor at the starting line and they started everyone's chips at the official start. So if you weren't in the very first row of people, your time is wrong. I think that really stinks. Why pay extra for a chip if it's not going to start your time when you actually cross the starting line? Especially at a huge race like this when some people may be so far back in the pack it could take several minutes until they cross the official start? So, I've pretty much decided I'm not doing the Race for the Cure again. I may change my mind next year, but this year was just so frustrating.
However, there was a great run this weekend! On Sunday, we did our longest run ever of 11 miles! I was really nervous about it, since I am still not completely 100% and I lost a week of training. Surprisingly, it wasn't that bad. I'm so proud of how far my mom and I have come since we started Couch to 5k in May. We finished in 2 hours and 20 minutes, which means we will probably finish the actual half-marathon around 2 hours and 45 minutes if we can mantain our pace. When I did the half-marathon in 2005 I finished in 3:17, so my time will be almost thirty minutes faster!
And for the final good news, I'm down to 149 even! 145 here I come...
