Why Running is Dangerous

So, I totally forgot to mention that I’m running a 5k tomorrow! YAY! Kind of.

I finally got my act together and signed up for a race. Why would I do this? One, because I said (in April) that I would complete the C25k running program. We’re not going to dwell on the fact that it’s now November.

Reason number two: I’m not one to just up and train for anything, especially when there’s no actual deadline. Big shock. So, when my roommate mentioned the Hot Chocolate 5/15k, my little ears perked up. What? Chocolate? I can totally run toward chocolate…especially Ghiradelli chocolate. Yep. At the end of my 5k race, there’s a chocolate fondue station AND Ghiradelli hot chocolate. If you think I’m running this for the exercise, you’ve lost your mind.

If you don’t know me, I hate to look like an idiot (which is ironic considering the rest of the story). So, I started the C25k program and was kicking butt and taking names up until about 2.5 weeks ago. I was on my first 25 minute straight run. About ten minutes in I was feeling good. “I can DO this,” I thought.

Because I live in the city, it’s a little tough to find a continuous path unless you live on the lake (I don’t.) So I just run around my neighborhood on the sidewalks. Well, as I was jogging in place waiting for a stoplight to change at a busy intersection, I landed wrong on a crooked piece of sidewalk. And I went down. Way down. I totally rolled my ankle.

After I checked to see how many people had seen me fall while RUNNING IN PLACE, I limped for the next five minutes. Then, I decided I was ok enough to finish the last ten minutes. And I did. Go me.

I got home and like a good former gymnast, I elevated and iced my ankle for the rest of the night. I mean, I had run on it for the last half of my run, so how bad could it really be?

I woke up the next morning to this:

  

Um, my ankle doesn’t normally look like someone shoved a baseball in it! I couldn’t wear normal shoes for almost a week. And running? Forget about it. I could barely limp to the train; running was clearly out of the question.

So, I took a week and a half off. This doesn’t sound like too much time, but when you’ve been running three times a week for 6 weeks, it really takes a toll! I’ve gotten back up to 25 minutes without dying. I figure that once I get out there tomorrow that I’ll get psyched up and really just go for it. Plus, I won’t want to look like an idiot in front of the 30,000 people also doing the race.

I don’t like doing things alone, so I enlisted the help of my friend, KK (the one who runs marathons for fun) for this race. Her exact words were “I’M GOING TO ANNOY THE CRAP OUT OF YOU FOR THREE MILES!” And she will…but it will motivate me.

Motivation is something I’ll definitely need at 7:30am on a Saturday in November!! Who schedules a race that early!? It’s not even light yet! And it’s only 35 degrees! Totally sucks. But, I paid good money for this and dangit, I’m going to run this stupid race before I eat my weight in chocolate!

My ultimate goal is to not walk AND to finish in less than 35 minutes. That’s more than an 11 minute mile (my average is 10:30). So that’s all I got.

To recap: Running in place is dangerous, but running toward chocolate is good. Very good. Amen.