The stairs in my house are not my friend at the moment. I'm sore. I'm achey. I can barely move.
I was tempted not to run the Half Marathon yesterday in the small town of Oberursel-Stierstadt. I didn't sign up ahead of time so it was easy to back out which I wanted to for many reasons. I barely ran over vacation in Italy. My Garmin Forerunner broke two weeks ago and I sent it in to get it replaced (for free!), so I wasn't sure if I'd want to run the race without it. And I just wasn't feeling it. I'm glad I decided to run it though.
The race was hilly and tough. I was cold and sopping wet because it rained the entire race. The last three miles I wanted to give up because for the first time, I had pain shooting down my leg from my hip pain. I have been seeing a Osteopathie and she rubs out my tough spots, but this was bad. I stopped a few times to 'stretch' to not much help. Finally a guy ran with me for last stretch and 'liked to talk' so it gave my mind a rest from thinking about my pains.
My cheerleaders were there for me at the corner in the first picture and were there at the end of the race! It was a great race because it was only 7 euro, and there weren't too many people. I even came in 1st place for my age group, 30-35 year old woman (which I don't think is too big of a feat since there weren't many of us). But better than that, I was thrilled that I beat my time by 16 minutes!! I ran it in 1 hour and 52 minutes (and 50 seconds). Which is about an 8:30'ish/mile pace. I wasn't sore after the Koln Half Marathon, but I'm sore now.
I'm so thankful to God for legs that can walk and run and that I can move about freely. Having taken care of my mom for a few years with my dad is a constant reminder of how fortunate those of us are that have body parts that work. I never want to take that for granted.
The best part of this race.....my eager and smiling cheerleaders, and a nice cold Beer waiting for me at the end of the race... in a glass.
Stierstädter Kerbelauf Oberursel-Stierstadt
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