Ran 5K today - RAN

Only two days left on the poll.  And it's a dead heat.  And honestly, I still haven't decided what to do, as crazy as that sounds.  Running the Race for the Cure will be medicinal in it's own way, but I'm so sick of these expanders.  They aren't bad in the daytime, but at night . . . well, I'll just say they are beyond uncomfortable.  A friend/colleague recently picked up running/walking again and was thinking about running the race with me.  That's inspiration, certainly.  Maybe we can motivate each other to keep training for the run.  I'd like that. 

I'm not sure my daughter (age 12 by race day) will be trained enough to run with me in May.  I tried to get her out with me on Saturday, but she wasn't interested.  She said she was in good enough shape to run it already because she runs in gym and at swim practice all the time.  True.  And I know she's MUCH faster than me.  And stronger.  And in better shape. She could easily swim for 30 or 40 minutes without stopping. But I don't think she could just go out and run 3 miles cold.  It's tougher than that, isn't it?  She'd need a month to train, wouldn't she?  She may walk it or walk/run it with Jason and Ken.

This morning I was talking with another colleague, Mona, who has been running and walking long distances much more regularly than yours truly.  She's a really neat person, full of energy, and very inspirational.  She and four other colleagues are planning to walk 60 miles in 3 days for breast cancer research.  They are training at a pace of 15 minute miles - walking.  Whoa.  That's fast.  I'm walking a 17 to 23 mile pace when I walk.  They invited me to go with them, and even offered to select the date/location based on when I could go.  But with the second surgery derailing me for 8 weeks, I won't have the training time needed.  Besides - 60 miles!  That's far!  I'm struggling for 3 right now.

While talking with Mona, I was giving all my excuses for not being able to do the walk with them.  I said I was finding it difficult to train even for the measly 5K in May.  I told her I couldn't even run the 3 miles yet.  She said that if I can run 2, I can run 3.  She was right.

This evening, I ran a 5K.  I ran the whole thing.  No walking.  No stopping for water (though I did pick up my water bottle on the run after mile 2 and carried it with me for a few laps).  I ran on the RPAC 1/8 mile track again.  It was slower than I've been running in that venue, but I had no recovery time during the distance.  The miles were 11:06, 11:14, 11:20 and the 5K was 35:07.  Then I walked the remaining laps to put in 4 miles total.  My knee held out okay, but was sore afterward.  It seems to be getting better slowly.