falling down, getting up, and lots of prayers

Saturday December 15, 2012

Today was rough. Physically. Emotionally. Mentally. In the wake of the awful shootings in Newtown, I didn't want to do anything today. I wanted to curl up on the couch, watch CNN, and cry.
 

But that wasn't going to fix anything. So I went on my run with Team in Training. This weekend I went to a new meeting place, at Walnut Beach in Milford, CT. There I met the event coach Cindy, and lots of new running friends. Jill, another coach, ran/walked with me. I was super nervous because today was a planned 5 mile course, and I had serious doubts that I could finish it.
 

I quickly learned that finishing wasn't going to be my biggest hurdle today. Not 5 minutes into the run I tripped and fell on the sidewalk. Not a dainty fall either, I felt myself going down, tried to recover, couldn't, fell onto my palms and drop rolled onto my back feet flailing in the air. It was definetly some double-o-seven moves. Thinking back it would have made a GREAT video...seriously funny stuff. After explaining to my running partner (and the poor concerned citizen walking on the other side of the street) that I was ok and I am no stranger to falling...I got up and just kept going. I am seriously one of the clumsiest people alive. I blame by big feet. I can't wait to tell my Mom about my fall, we love to reaccount all of my clumsy adventures growing up, numerous bicycle accidents, skinned knees, falling down stairs in college (completely sober inbetween classes), it's almost fitting that I would wipe out on my run too.
 

So besides that little "Snafu" the run went really well! Coach Cindy was awesome, she met us throughout the run with water and even let me try "power gel". I guess it's best to try out those sort of things before you do a real race to see what works with your stomach, I tried the chocolate power gel, which tasted sorta like raw brownie batter. I did intervals again, jogging 3 minutes, walking one minute. At around mile 4, we went to 2 minutes, 1 minute, but by the end we finished at 3:1 again. I felt great when the GPS showed us that we had gone 5.44 miles! Coach Cindy was waiting with chocolate milk and bananas and we took a picture by the beach.

 

 

I feel very grateful that I found such a wonderful and positive group of people to run with through Team in Training. We dedicated todays run to the victims of yesterdays shooting. I hope in the coming days the families of victims can find some peace admist the chaos.
 

Thanks again to all my friends and family for checking in on me throughout the past 48 hours. Keep praying, this area needs it.
 

Kerry