Half-Marathon Update & A Guest Post

On Saturday I ran (attempted to run) The Woodlands Half-Marathon. This would have been #6 for me. I went into this race majorly unprepared. When I originally signed up, I was training, but the last few months I just ran here and there and only ran 3 miles at the most. So, I knew this was going to be tough and I planned to just try to get thru it, even if I had to walk most of it. I met up with some of my running friends from Houston Fit before the race and decided to run it with my old coach, Alan. He was going into with the same mind set as me...just finish, who cares about time. We decided to do 2:1's- run 2 minutes, walk 1 minute. Well, I made it to about mile 8 before I was in some serious pain. Every step I took sent excruciating pain thru both of my feet. My legs felt great; I felt like I was actually going to finish with a decent time, even with my lack of training. But, my feet were in almost unbearable pain. From mile 8-10 I pretty much hobbled and limped thru it still determined to finish. Around mile 10 I noticed the IT band in my right leg was spasming. I could actually stop and look at the side of my knee cap at the bottom of my thigh and SEE it pulsing/spasming. By this point I was pretty sure my feet were bleeding. My coach and I decided it would be smart for me to drop out of the race around mile 10.5. There was no way I could even walk to the finish...I just had to give up and call my husband and ask him to come pick me up.

I spent the rest of the day in terrible pain. I could barely walk because of the pain in my feet. Sunday morning we woke up and I sat down to look closer at the bottom of my feet and whoa, HOLY BLISTERS!!!! These were not your normal, annoying little blisters. The heels of both of my feet, the balls of my feet and even my toes were covered in blisters. No wonder I could barely walk! I had my husband come take a look at them and we decided they all needed to be popped. Fun. So, he took a clean safety pin, sat on the floor and popped every single blister. He definitely wins "husband of the year" award for that! We put ointment on them and bandaged them up after he was done. I walked around the rest of the day in house slippers and tried to stay off of them as much as possible.

This is what I get for trying to run a half marathon without training. So, take note. Thankfully I am feeling much better. The blisters have started to heal and I can pretty much walk normal again.

My sweet friend Jackie & I before the race. She was there to cheer us all on!

Moving on... On Thursday I will be guest posting for one of my best friends, Jen, from Down With The Dearmores ( www.downwiththedearmores.blogspot.com ). So, make sure to check back for a fun "all things green" post! :)