Race Report: Johnny Kelley Half (with a twist)

RUNNING...

Locky & I smiling for the camera.

Several weeks ago, my sister-in-law and I signed up to run the Johnny Kelley Half Marathon over Memorial Day week-end.  She's a competitive runner and tends to fly through these races at paces I can't hold very comfortably.  I have been dealing with the aforementioned pain in my foot due to plantar fasciitis so I wasn't going to be breaking any records.  Thus, I suggested we run 'naked' (no watches) and just cruise it together, which she was totally up for.  As race day approached, my foot was getting worse and I began to doubt whether I would be able to pull off a half, even at 'cruising' speed.  I let my sister-in-law know that it wasn't looking good and that I would most likely have to bail which she completely understood.  The week before the race I started an intensive pain management plan and with the time off, the meds, and the stretching, by race day my pain was minimal.  Naturally, as any runner would, I began to think the race was, once again, a possibility.  I checked in with the doctor who told me that while it wouldn't help, running on plantar fasciitis does not make it worse.  One check in the "yes" box with that response. I then emailed my coach and gave him the low down.  I assumed would say "no" because the past couple weeks have been a bit rough from a training perspective.  But he surprised me by letting me know he understood my desire to run, particularly since I already paid and did not want to throw away the $50 reg fee.  In so many words, he basically said if I felt up for it, I should go for it.  Another check in the "yes" box.  There was only one check in the "no" box at this point and the "yes"s kept adding up...

• I wanted to hang and run with my sister-in-law as we always have a good time catching up while we're out on the road.  
• I wanted to be outside after spending the previous 48 hours inside watching the rain.  
• And, if I'm being totally honest here, I simply wanted to run.  

As you can imagine, the "yes" list won out over the single "no".  Sunday morning we got up around 6:30 and headed off to the race.  We got about 5 minutes away from the house when I realized I had forgotten my iPod.  GASP!!

WHAT?? NO MUSIC??

I asked my sister-in-law, who tends to run a sub 1:30 half, what her game plan was because if she was going to follow her usual routine of 'crushing it', then I needed to turn around and grab my music.  But, she claimed she didn't care about her time and was still happy to just chat and cruise.  We got to the race, grabbed our numbers, lined up and off we went.  As we always do when we run together, we jumped right into conversation.  We tend to have a plethora of subjects because we don't see each other very often but we share several similar interests including but not limited to, our children (her 3 and my 2; ages 11,9,8,7 & 6),

Katharine, Elizabeth, Rosie, Will & Grace

our love of running, our addiction to coffee, and our dread of packing (which we both do a lot of).  We ran 'comfortably fast' (her probably a bit more comfortable than me) through the entire race, chatting the whole time, much to the chagrin of the runners in front of us.  Before we knew it, we were running down the home stretch.  We crossed the line together at 1:35 and change; a time that we were both very pleased with.  We grabbed some snacks from the post-race table (really good selection), we posed for a photo with other runners; all of us holding the Muscle Milk drinks that we then enjoyed, and we stretched while we listened to "The Moonlighters" rock out to Pink Floyd and Zeppelin for a bit (that was awesome).  Then we grabbed coffees (given) and headed home...continuing to chat for another 45 minutes, savoring this last chunk of time before we jumped back into the chaos of our wild and crazy families.  Later that day, out of curiosity, I checked coolrunning to see what our official times and places were.  Turns out, her results were up but they had missed me completely.  My name wasn't even on the list.  It's as if I hadn't run.  I laughed and took it as a sign.  Because, in the end, it really didn't matter.  We ran for the fun of it and we didn't need numbers to tell us we had been successful with our plan.

...AND MUSIC

Listen to this:
The Mess - Kid Astray  


OH, AND...
Don't forget to enter the YURBUDS giveaway.  The winner will be picked this Friday.  Hurry. Go.