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The Road Warrior and the turtle

This past Sunday was the final race of the MRTC Road Race Series. And since I finished all ten races I am officially a Road Warrior!

This last race was a half marathon. Usually I would have tried to get a PR because it is a relatively flat course. But my goal this time was to not get injured two weeks before my marathon. Two weeks before this race was when I got shot in the hamstring. I didn't want something like that to happen again. I just needed to finish. My time was the slowest I have ever run (1:56:31) but I kept it slow and steady.

During the week when I was out running I ran by a turtle that was crossing the road. I thought it was hilarious. I thought "I must be the rabbit". The more I thought about it the more I realized that right now I need to slow down a bit. My body is obviously trying to tell me something. I have gone injury free for these last four years since I have been running. No matter how much I put my legs, knees, hamstrings, quads, ankles and feet through I never had any serious issues. Yes things would ache or be stiff or tight, but nothing that a day off couldn't fix.

Until recently.

Since I started training for my marathon I have had knee, knee, foot, knee and hamstring issues. Every time I would start to really crank up my training something new would pop up. It wasn't just the usual aches and pains. These were things that I could not run through. I tried to push them and tough it out but they altered my stride and were working against me.

So there I was, in the last race before my big marathon with my knee, foot and hamstring poking me to let me know they are still not 100%. I can take this slowly and deal with a small amount of pain or try and push it and deal with a potentially worse situation.

So I became a turtle. Slow and steady. Most of the people around me were huffing and puffing but I was just gliding. It felt great to finish feeling good. I set my ego aside and didn't make things worse for myself. I always hate seeing people finish ahead of me that I know I can beat.

But not this time.

This time I am a Road Warrior AND a turtle.
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Comments

  1. NatalieNovember 22, 2011 at 12:36 PM

    Way to go! I figure when you need to run slow you can just think of my giant pregnant butt plugging along getting now where real fast. =) Have a great marathon!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Travis NunezNovember 23, 2011 at 1:22 AM

    Thanks! You weren't running that slow. Everyone around you was just moving too fast! I told you I needed to slow down.

    ReplyDelete

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