My Runniversary

Today was my one-year "runniversary." I planned to celebrate the progress I've made over the last year by running the Go Literacy 5K again, which was my first ever race. This time last year, I had just finished a couch to 5K program, and I was worried about even being able to run 3.1 miles without walking. Now I'm training for a marathon. My, how times have changed!

I had big plans to write this thoughtful blog post about my experience, reflecting on how far I've come since I started running last summer. I was also hoping today would be my big chance to finally finish a 5K in under 30 minutes - much faster than my time of 34:18 last year on this course. I also had plans to redeem myself and not wear an ugly green headband in my race pictures. Yikes.

Go Literacy 5K - Oct. 2010

I picked up my race packet yesterday, had my clothes all picked out and bib number ready to pin. My Garmin was charged, my alarm was set, and I was looking forward to cheering on my friend Kelly. Then I came down with the plague. Sore throat, massive headache, fever, stuffy, runny nose and uncontrollable, incessant whining.

I felt terrible when I woke up this morning. I knew I could probably push myself to get through the race at a less than desirable speed, but it was barely 40-something degrees, and I didn't think burning my lungs and sore throat with cold air was going to help things. I've never missed a race before, and I was so sad when Trea left without me. I almost went and just watched so I could be there to cheer for him and Kelly, but the cold weather and fever won out, and I stayed in bed. The bigger picture is marathon training -- not to mention that I'm running the Mother Road Half Marathon next weekend as a training run! -- and I have 10 miles on schedule for this weekend. So I threw a pity party via social media, and then got myself to the doctor ASAP. I don't have time to be sick! Literally!

Usually, I'm stubborn about going to the doctor and will self-medicate for days before I give in and make an appointment. Not today. Today, I need to get better. I got a steroid shot, which will hopefully kick this crud, and if I'm not better by Monday, I'm hopping on the antibiotic train. I'm also drinking EmergenC like there's no tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Trea and Kelly both had a great race! Kelly beat her last 5K time by two minutes, and Trea set a new PR, placing 1st in his age group! He ran a 24:52!! This was also his first 5K last year, and his previous time on this course was close to 32 minutes. He's been gradually improving all year, but today was fantastic. He was so excited, and I'm so proud of him! Giant bummer that I wasn't there to see him do so well and get his medal.

My big one-year milestone didn't go at all as planned, and I'm still pretty disappointed about it. I've spent all day in bed making a used kleenex mountain, but I'm holding out hope that this steroid shot works a miracle and maybe I can get my 10 miles in tomorrow. We shall see...