The Running Gods Have Smiled Down Upon Me!

When I woke up this morning, I knew today was the day!  

I put on my running clothes, my running shoes...

my cheap Timex Ironman watch...

...even my RoadID wrist band.

(You know, in case I fell down 30 steps from my front door

and none of my neighbors could identify me.

The RoadID just makes me feel more runner-y, okay?!)

And I was off!

Well, almost...

My plan was to run only about a mile.  Okay, fine, I didn't actually have a plan.  I just figured I'd get out there and see how I felt.  I was so curious to see how it was going to feel to run again!  And I'd worked it up in my head that I was going to feel like passing out after about 15 steps, so I didn't expect to be able to go far at all.  As I was getting ready to take off my friend (aka Running Partner Extraordinaire) Karen's garage door opened and I saw that she was getting in her car to drive somewhere for her Saturday morning long run (she was starting to get tired of circling round and round our neighborhood to get enough mileage).  I stopped and waived at her and she came out to say hi.  When I told her I was getting ready to go running she said right away that she'd just stay in the neighborhood and run with me.  What a pal!

And we were off!

I was pleasantly surprised to find that I did not, in fact, feel like passing out after 15 steps.  As a matter of fact, I ended up running 3.4 miles at basically the same pace I was running before the injury.  Karen even told me I should probably slow down a bit at the beginning since we were running a sub-9 pace at that point--I obviously had "horse out of the gate" syndrome.  It was warm and humid, but I didn't care about that this morning.  It was good times being back out there.  GOOD TIMES!

I am happy to report that my entire run was completely PAIN FREE!  I guess I had gotten really used to running with the pain because without it, I almost felt like my leg was numb.  You know that feeling when you've had the hiccups and they finally go away, but you're left with this sort of "phantom" hiccup feeling, like you're going to have a hiccup but it just never comes?  Well, it was like that, but with my leg...and not hiccupping.

After our 3.4 miles together, I came home and Karen went back out for another 2.5 or so...

Go Karen!!

So, I had considered taking a video clip of the first part of my run.  After seeing some fun vlog entries from Amanda at Runninghood and Jenn at Running Sane, I thought it would be a cool way to document my first run post-injury.  Once I hooked up with Karen though, I ditched the idea.  But, I did record a little video clip of myself sitting on my front porch after my run, speaking very awkwardly (VERY AWKWARDLY) into the camera and sweating to beat the band.  And while I was doing that my neighbor (Karen's husband) came out to get his newspaper and there I was, just sitting on my porch, holding my camera at arm's length from my face, talking to myself.  Embarrassing?  Just a little...I lost it after that and had to start over.  The resulting video was so mortifying that I absolutely CAN NOT post it on here!!  Seriously...it's bad.  But, I still think the vlog idea is really fun, so maybe some other time...

I am feeling so grateful today for being able to get back out there and run this morning!

So, what do you think?  Do you like seeing people's vlog entries?