Done!!!!

Saturday was the day I had been waiting for since January. When I first signed up for the full marathon, I was excited and confident about doing another race and May couldn't come soon enough. Since that time, pretty much anything that could go wrong with my body did and being a realist, I scaled it back to the half marathon. I still felt pretty confident though and was still excited for May. However, the two weeks prior to the race, I was in a lot of pain from my back and was starting to worry that making it 13.1 miles down the road could get ugly.

When I arrived in Utah on Friday, I was, at that moment, not sure if I was even going to attempt the race. After meeting the doctor and getting my MRI, I am thinking I may have a herniated disc (I won't find out until next week) and as much as I wanted to do the race, I also did not want to damage anything more. Also, the last time I ran a long run, I came home, went to take off my shoes and couldn't get up again. I spent the remainder of the day on the couch, doped up on Vicodin, and providing good entertainment for Kevin. (I watched Twilight while high on the painkillers and man if that didn't seem like the best movie EVER! I realize that was probably the drugs talking.) I was unsure about whether running the race was worth the possibility of pain like that again.

So, big decision to make and I think I grilled anyone and everyone on Friday about what to do. I was worried about more pain and hurting my body more but I am also a finisher and I am somewhat stubborn about finishing what I start. So, Friday night, I finally decided that I was going for it.

I was really nervous the morning of the race but the back felt pretty good and I thought worst case scenario, I spend the day on the couch hopped up on the Vicodin entertaining my two friends who were spending the weekend with me. As I ran the race, I felt okay. My sacrum area (area where your pelvis connects in back) was burning like it was on fire pretty much the entire race and I had some clenched up muscles the last 3 miles but I made it. I was working hard to ignore all of that and tell myself nothing hurt. I finished in 1:59, which is about 10 minutes slower than my training runs but all things considered, I really don't care. I was just glad that I made it and that I was still able to walk afterward.

By some marathon miracle, the back only needed some ice, some Alleve, and a muscle relaxer post race. I am glad it is done and I think I am hanging up my distance running shoes for a while until my body repairs itself or forever if the doctor thinks that is what I need to do.