Yes, I AM a Runner...(but today I'm a whining runner!!)

I had a follow up visit to the orthopaedic doctor scheduled for the second week in May.  I called to postpone it because I'm signed up to run a 10k on Memorial Day (Cotton Row) and I'm worried the doctor is going to tell me not to run for a while!  My husband said that decision most certainly "earned" me the label "runner".  Then I read this:

"If you run, you are a runner. It doesn't matter how fast or how far. It doesn't matter if today is your first day or if you've been running for twenty years. There is no test to pass, no license to earn, no membership card to get. You just run." --John Bingham

Okay...I AM a runner....At the same time, I'm currently debating whether or not to run a 10k all my running buddies have signed up for in a couple of weeks.

I signed up for an 8k that will be held this weekend just a few days before my calf pain ramped up to an all-time high (when I was worried I might have a stress fracture).  (That was the same day I signed up for the recent 5k I ran as well as the Cotton Row 10k--I was on a roll with registration that day!)

I had decided then I wouldn't do the 10k in question, because I didn't think I'd be ready for it...but as it turns out, my running group's plan calls for 6.5 miles that day anyway....not only that, the course is almost COMPLETELY flat.  And, "everyone" says they are going to take it slow and easy.  To make it even harder to resist...the race route will be loaded with bands playing live music!!  (It's called Music Moves Me.)  The down side--it's $25 (which I hear isn't much for a 10k in most cities, but it seems to be more than most races in this area)....AND, I'm just not sure my leg is up for it.

I ran 5 miles the other day with a couple of the girls from my group, and my neighbor (who, by the way, just donated one of her kidneys, to a non-relative, less than 5 months ago!!) and I could barely walk the next day.  (Well, I guess I could walk since I went and did Body Pump and upped my weights...)  We're set to do hills tonight and I'm scared to death!


Okay, okay....enough whining.  Yes, "reachdown", I can hear you saying, "Suck it up, Buttercup!!"  (Thanks for putting that in my head!!  You should totally be a coach, your words seems to stick with me for some reason!)  For you long time readers, he's also the one who said, "It's all in your head, until you pass out..then it's in your body!"

Interestingly enough, my kidney-donating neighbor told me she had read about a study where they had people read words like "slow" and "sick" or "fast" and "speedy".....then they did timed walks.  The ones who read the "slow" words walked slower.  So maybe the idea that I can't hack it really is all (or mostly) all in my head.  I hope that's the case because I'm certainly trying to convince my body that's the truth!!

Look out HILLS, here I come!!!


((By the way, if the good doctor's wife happens to read this...I'd appreciate it if you'd just keep my secret safe until after Cotton Row is over.  I'll confess at my appointment...IF it's even still needed by then-how's that for positive thinking??!!))

Thanks for stopping in, come again soon!
:D