Saturday - 5/22/10

9 months ago today I started the Couch to 5k program. Tomorrow I am running (walking, limping, whatever) in a Half Marathon! How nuts is that?!

So I have had 4 days of physical therapy, 4 days of stretching, icing, and rest, and 4 days to way over analyze everything and anything to do with this Half Marathon. I have talked to anyone who will listen about my injury and gotten advice from 4 different running professionals.I have come up with 3 different plans, changed goals a ton of times, and had emotions ranging from happy to sad to annoyed to excited to apathetic. I am not sure where I am now other than just ready to be done with it all.

My brother says you should always have 3 goals each time you race, which I do.
Before my injury my 3 goals were:
1. Finish without passing out/ throwing up
2. Finish with a time under 2:35
3. Finish without walking at all

It has taken me the past 4 days to come to terms with where I am and what is realistic for tomorrow. Actually I really do not know where I am since I have not run since Wednesday and have had 2 treatments since then. I don't know if the hours of stretching and having an ice pack strapped to me has paid off or if I am still going to be in pain. I think the not knowing is what is keeping me motivated. I am sort of excited (for lack of a better term) to see what will happen tomorrow.

But since I am a Type A uber planner I do need to have the goals and plans in place. So my new goals, based on the assumption that I will not be able to run much are as follows:
1. Finish without passing out/ throwing up (Did I mention the high for tomorrow is 93 degrees?)
2. Finish in under 3 hours (I will need to almost speed walk the whole thing if I don't run any of it)
3. Finish and still be able to walk.

I was going to run until my knee started to hurt and then walk the rest but 3 others talked me into running a mile and then walking a mile. Since I can go a mile without pain, this plan may extend my running time and allow me to run further since there would be a break in between miles.

All I know is that out of 1,058 runners I don't want to be #1,058 to cross the finish line!