The Santa to the Sea half marathon took place today. This race was Rachel's and my first half marathon a year ago. I was really looking forward to it, so when I got sick a little over a week ago with an upper respiratory viral infection I knew that it would come down to a very difficult decision based on how I was feeling.
I decided that it would be smarter on my part to not run. It was a difficult decision to make because I'm a very stubborn person and I really wanted to run. However, I'm still having difficulty walking up a set of stairs and I knew that running would most likely make it worse. I'm already -24 hours at work for having to call out 3 days this week to stay home in bed resting, I couldn't risk taking any more time off.
By me not racing it forced Rachel to run her first half alone. If I couldn't run with her then I knew I wanted to be at the finish line cheering for her.
It was more difficult than I thought it would be. We got stopped at a light while racers were running through and I got that first pang of regret. The second came when we got to the finish line to wait for Rachel to finish. Seeing all of the limping racers with their medals around their necks and that smile of pride on their faces. Seeing men and women crossing the finish line. Seeing the first timers finish (yes, you can tell). Seeing a female runner run toward the finish line only to stop as she realized her boyfriend was there, on one knee with a ring. I got tears in my eyes at the dad who was having a difficult time in the last 30 feet before the end and his daughter going out to run it with him.
I never thought that making the smart decision would hurt so much.
But then Rachel text and said she was about a half mile away and my regret turned into excitement. As soon as I saw her turning the corner the excitement turned to pride. It's not that I didn't think she could do it, because I knew she could, it was just such an accomplishment for her. She might not have PR'd (she was 2 minutes off) but she did it all on her own (and without training properly for 3 weeks)! To me she PR'd and being able to get out there and do what she did is impressive.
Our next race is January 5th and is our first night race. We're both excited and nervous because it's our first night race. That plus I'm still not 100% better, so I'm scared to get started running again. However I'm looking at that race as a kick off for our training for the LA Marathon. It's nerve wracking to be back there, but it may be the motivation I've needed to get back into shape and to get back to eating healthy. I know I've made it my goal to finish a marathon in under 6 hours and if it's not this one we at least want to PR.
I think it's time to get back into the swing of things.
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