MAMACADABRA

It’s possible that in preparation for the 5k Aych and I ran yesterday we may have made some mistakes.  For example, not running for two weeks prior to the race?  That may have been a mistake.  Eating like sh-t this entire past week?  That may have been a mistake.  Scheduling wine night for the evening before the 5k?  Perhaps a mistake.  Eating 74 cinnamon and sugar coated pita chips?  That was probably a mistake.  Aych drinking one too many glasses of wine?  Yes…mistake.  Getting a large Diet Coke…okay fine…AND an Egg McMuffin and hashbrowns for my pre-5k breakfast?  Ummm…mistake.  Lining up in front and then trying to keep pace with those crazy bastards?  That was very likely a big mistake.  Not double tying my shoes which would have allowed me to avoid stopping to retie them?  That was absolutely a mistake.

So we didn’t do a great job of preparing but there are reasons I tell you.  It wasn’t only due to stupidity and poor planning…although there was some of that (at least on my part).

I started the week with a birthday.  A birthday that I felt deserved a LOT of pieces of birthday cake.  You only turn 36 once, right?  Then there were birthday lunches with girlfriends.  And birthday dinners with family.  And a couple days at the gym where I didn’t do so well.  And then wine night.  Now…thankfully…I was driving so the opportunity to drink too many glasses of wine in addition to eating too many pita chips wasn’t something I had to worry about.

Aych had an emotional rollercoaster of a week and you know how that goes.  Wine night was needed and well deserved.

We went into Wine Night with an agreement to leave early.  But, when we were about to leave, Ess’ husband returned home from a business trip, and sat down at the table with a beer.  Well…we couldn’t very well leave then.  So Ess opened another bottle and how could Aych say no?!  I wouldn’t have if I hadn’t been driving!

Saturday morning found me tired, starving (hence the stop at McDonalds), and scared out of my mind to run.  It found Aych a teensy bit hungover.

Earlier in the week when Aych realized how freaked out and unprepared I was for the race, she told me she’d understand if I bailed, but that she thought it would be a good way for me to turn things around.  The forecast predicted unseasonably warm weather and she argued that a nice run in the warm air would be good for me.

On Friday night, as we enjoyed wine night, I kept secretly hoping she’d say we should forget it and sleep in.  But she didn’t.  I was the one who talked her into this race in the first place so I sure as hell couldn’t back out.

Okay…so as I mentioned above…we made some mistakes.  Likely the biggest one was lining up towards the front and starting out at a pace that is way faster than either of us can maintain.  We held on for a good long time but the combination of the too fast pace, and having to stop to tie my shoe, forced us to start walking.  Fail.

To be fair…it WAS windy.  Like really windy…well…at least on one side of the lake it was really windy.

When we crossed the finish line we both expected a terrible time but it was only five minutes more than the 5k we ran on Thanksgiving.  AND…I felt amazing.  No I mean I felt F-CKING AMAZING.  Let me count the ways…a for one, my hip was sore but it wasn’t killing me AT ALL.  B for two, it was 60 degrees and sunny…I mean seriously?!  C for three, I always feel super accomplished when I do something like that and am on my way back home by 10am.  D for four, I started to get excited about the upcoming races for which we’ve already registered and/or plan to register.  I haven’t been excited about running in months!!!  Aych was right…this was just the thing I needed to turn things around.

We could have bailed, slept-in, and gone about our weekend.  If we had I would have felt so sh-tty about myself and I would still feel stuck.  And while we didn’t break any records (no, surprisingly, not even the record for the SLOWEST 5k runners ever) we did it.  Aych, slightly hungover and me, having not run in weeks.  We did it!!!

Go team!

The point is…I’m positive I’ve mentioned my ability to talk myself out of (and into) anything.  I was so very close to talking myself out of running yesterday.  Thanks to a good friend who could clearly tell I was close to ditching I did it anyway and now feel like I’m ready to keep going.

TODAY:  What if all it takes is simply doing something to get me moving in the right direction?  And what if even though it’s not a blowout…it’s still a win?