Race for the Cure (or how I was a bad girl)

I was supposed to meet my friend and her team for Race for the Cure in downtown Indy. The race is pretty huge here, 40,000 people decending upon just a few blocks of town. There are a ton of vendors and booths and ceremonies, but the humanity... too much for me.

In any case, when I woke up this morning, it was 35 degrees out, so I dressed with many layers thinking that at best, I would have moderately paced walk. However, by the time I found a place to park in all of the gridlock and figured out where I was supposed to meet the group, I was 40 minutes late and missed everyone. Boo. Crappy traffic, cold, no friend. Why was I there?? So I figured I'd walk the course as quick as I could and get home. I brought my headphones just in case, so at least I had that.

So I got myself up as far I could in the starting lane until I was near the start.. My goodness, it was a long, long lane of people. So, then the race started and the people near the front started to run the course. Sigh.

During college, I didn't workout with any regularity. I tried running a few times, but it didn't really ever like it. I did my first Race for the Cure the year after I graduated, it was my first race ever. Seeing everyone run, finally something clicked and I decided I wanted to run the race the next year. It probably took me the whole year to work up to 3 miles, but I did run it next year and it became a tradition that I looked forward to. I ran regularly after that, but never really more than 3 miles. I didn't really do any longer distances until 2004-5 when I trained to run the Mini Indy (and I will note, I lived in Michigan then!) I gave up running in 2007 when I worried that it was the reason I couldn't get pregnant.

So, long story short, the Race for the Cure was my running race! So today, I said, screw it. I ran every other minute and finished the course in around 40 minutes. Honestly, I felt so good, so happy...my heel didn't hurt and I was careful not to let myself get too hot or get my heart rate up too high...But it just felt so good.

Of course my heel did hurt later on during the day. I wonder if I ever will get rid of the pain. I guess I do know I need to do something more to try to get better. It's been months and it really hasn't changed. I want to train for a marathon next year. God help me, I hope I can.