Today was the day. We did the “Turn Back the Clock” run. Well, I did a 5K run/walk and Tim and the kids did the family 1 mile walk (I joined them after a few minutes of resting after my 5K). As we were sent on our way, the official temperature was 32 degrees.
Well, things started out good. My warm up went well, the start was nice, but about 1/2 mile in my calf began to tighten up. Walked for about one block trying to let it relax itself. I started to run again. At about the 1 mile point my calf started tightening up again, but this time my foot was going numb. So, had to start making decisions on what to do. Managed to make it to the turn around point. At this point I almost quit, but could hear everyone cheering people on at the one mile point. So, I decide to drive on even with the pain. At this point it just wasn’t going away. So, I decided to run one block, walk one block for the rest of the way back. So, I turned the corner for the last 500 yards, I was pushing the pain to the back of my head and just put one foot in front of the other. Chuckled to myself when I caught myself calling cadence to myself. Well, the last two blocks were really painful, but then I could see the finish line, turned the corner to see Tim and the kids…..Ema was cheering me on and running next to me. So, I grabbed her hand and she ran me to the finish line. It really was a sweet moment. I RAN across the finish line. Felt good. Went to get some water and I was almost in tears telling Tim I couldn’t get my legs to cooperate, but then a woman came up behind me and said “thank you”. She had explained to me that the entire 5K she was using me as a guide and motivation. She was trying to catch up to me and couldn’t (which made me feel good), but told herself she was doing good as long as she could still see me. So, it made me feel good that I was providing motivation for someone else.
meandyou2011 