Mini Day.

As I blogged a few days ago, I decided not to run the Mini.  Tim, however, was running and headed up with Bill this morning quite early.  Amelia and I had planned to go and cheer them on, but I developed a low-grade fever last night (something I've had on and off with the abdominal pain), and Amelia developed some tummy issues.  I was up quite late with her, and so she and I made the decision to sleep in today and not spectate.

It's too bad we couldn't go, because Amelia made a killer sign that read:  "Run Tim, Bill, and Jimmy.  Murderers are Chasing You!"  There were even graphics included...a knife with blood drops and running shoes.  There's always another race.

Tim ran right around 1:28, as did Bill.  And Jimmy was solidly sub-1:30.  John Heatherly ran a PR of 1:33:58..a week after running Lousiville!  Jessie ran a 1:35:xx in his very first half, and JoAnna ran 2:15:xx after a long break in training.  Tim Strunk ran 1:46.  My dad ran a 1:37.  Not bad for a 62-year-old man.  There were a ton of other local runners who had great races as well.

Not running the Mini made me feel bad.  Like I should have been out there.  Of course, I have a perfectly good reason not to...I ran a marathon (my first) 6 days ago and am definitely not recovered.  I have a fever.  And the run was bound to be painful (abdominal pain).  I also don't feel well at all and am struggling again to keep an appetite.  But it really bothered me that I wasn't there.  This is part of my psyche that I have to work on changing.  I struggle the most with recovery.  And that is what gets me into trouble.  I hate recovering and resting.  During this past training cycle, I did a very good job of keeping my mileage moderate and very low intensity.  But that was because of the abdominal pain.  Through a large part of the cycle, I had to force myself to run, and I certainly wasn't going to run longer than what was on my schedule.

But once my pain has been taken care of, that will change.  And it will be back to holding back and not overtraining and getting hurt.  I'd much rather fight that battle than the one that I've fought over the last 8+ months.  And, by doing moderate mileage, I've shown myself that I still got decently fit without going way overboard.

That said, I am really jonesing for a long run.  I communicated with Kathy today via text and we are both excited to get back out to Buddha.  I don't think she is running a Fall marathon (she coaches cross country and is usually busy at meets every weekend...though Chicago is on a Sunday), but she wants to keep her endurance up with doing 15-20 every Sunday.  I can't wait.  My favorite runs are the group runs with Kathy, Bill, Tim, and the others who sometimes show up (dad, Emily, Scott, Wes, Magnus, et al.) out in the county.  We have such a good time--I don't know why we can't get more people (John and Jimmy!) out there.  Bill tells the best stories and the miles just tick by.  And Kathy spoils us with Gatorade.  I actually forgot to mention it in my race report...but when things got tough I said to Tim, "I wish Bill and Kathy were here."  When we got to 23, I tried to imagine myself running with them during the last three miles of our route.  I tried to think of them pushing me.  It helped a lot.

That's one of the best things about this past training cycle--that I have formed some great running relationships.  I haven't been able to run with Kathy for a while, and I miss it.  She is one of the toughest women I know, and I feel like running with her makes me stronger.

But..no running for at least another five days or so (kills me to type that).  Surgery on Monday morning.  Tim has convinced me that there's no reason to run between now and then.  I hope to be able to run on Wednesday, but that may be being a bit optimistic.