3.1

Last night I ran a 5k on the treadmill, pain free, and distracted by none other than Anthony Bourdain on the Travel Channel. His visit to Charleston, SC kept me focused, and I was able to sweat through a half and hour without stopping. After some dutiful stretching, I headed back into the overcast haze of the evening, psyched about regaining my running mojo. My mind was awash with possibilities, more and more mileage, a half marathon, but I rewound. If I'm to overcome this injury I can't get ahead of myself -- an overextension in this weakened state could set me back even further.

If I'm able to slowly build more mileage and remain pain free, I'm looking forward to doing the Run for Alex again this year. I ran the 5 mile race last year and it was a challenge. It was a hot day in Bentleyville, and the asphalt was not forgiving (nor was the giant 'suprise' hill in the course). This race was also my first experience with helpful comments from other runners and energy sharing. The last mile of the race I was close behind a runner who waved to every spectator, his encouraging words and the smiles and waves from the towns folk went a long way to my sailing into the finish line. Unfortunately once I crossed the finish line I also had my first experience with post race nausea, but was able to recover in time, and make a visit to the largest post run buffet I have ever seen complete with chocolate fountain!

So hopefully I can run it again this year but I'm taking things one step at a time. One tentative and careful foot in front of the other until my strength returns.