Last week we were on vacation and while it wasn't a total loss, it wasn't the greatest for training, either. Went for a nice 4 mile run that Tuesday with my wife and her brother and his wife. Then I didn't run again until a really fun group run last Saturday with The Gomer Nation (www.twogomers.com). The next day my daughter got hit by a bike at the park and we spent the rest of the day and all of Monday in the hospital with her. She's fine now, but it was scariest 30-some hours of my life. I'm still not totally recovered from it mentally, emotionally or even physically, but we're getting there. Even so, my beautiful and determine wife and I decided to honor our registration and run the Full Moon 5k around Monona Bay last night.
I never run at night and this race started at 9pm, so it was quite a challenge for me. Neither of us felt great going into the race, but decided we needed to do it. It was a statement. We're moving on. And honestly...it was awesome. I finished in about 33 minutes, which was fine by me. I told our friend Amber I wanted to get under 35, so...mission accomplished. And my wife...it was so great to see her running. She's so strong. The route actually used the stretch of bike path where my daughter was hit, so when we ran on that part it was a little surreal. I didn't know how to feel. "Am I supposed to be freaked out right now?" I thought. And Julie started walking. That was the first time I passed her, otherwise she was kicking my butt. We both kept going, though. And I remember one stretch where a Switchfoot song was on and the beat was perfect and I felt like I was gliding. I felt like I could run forever. And then that song ended and I struggled, but still kept going.
Oh, by the way...if you make a playlist in iTunes, always make sure it transfers to your iPod before you go to the race. Ugh. I was stuck with mostly random songs. Oh, well.
Anyway, we both finished and had a great time. It was a good step back into normalcy. That said, Julie and I talked about something pretty big before the race that you should know about. I'm not going to run the half in August. It's basically 3 weeks from today and the most I've ever run, 7 miles, I ran three weeks ago. Nobody could have predicted Anna's accident and it took a lot out of me. And I don't want the next 3 weeks to be a whirlwind of stress and running and time away from my family.
I really think I could do it anyway. But, I don't want to just do it to do it. It's something I want to do some day, but it doesn't have to be right now. It's ok. It has to be. On my list of priorities right now, it's up there, but not at the top. And this doesn't mean I'm going to stop running. I was just thinking today, "I need to finish a race in under 30 minutes." And I know that's doable. And it won't suck all my time away from me. Heck, I've always been a "sprinter" anyway! Plus, how can I stop running when I'm rockin' the Omni 8s?? (Thanks, Retha! They were AWESOME during the race last night)
So, the bottomline is that I love running. I really do. And I'm not stopping. But, the half is on the back-burner for now. It remains a twinkle in my eye. Someday...
In the meantime, thank you SO much for caring about me and encouraging me. I'd be lost without you.
I'm going to try to maintain one blog at this point, too: The Blank Page Whenever I write, it'll be there.
Thanks again, you guys...you're the best.
Still running,
Ryan
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