Well let’s focus on the good things first.  I had a great run this morning. Which felt like it was a long time coming.

Monday morning I woke up at 3am and realized that I had eaten something bad the night before. Hard to get an easy 3 in when you’re in the bathroom all morning.

Wednesday I had a doctor’s appointment and an appointment for my car. Most of morning eaten up by those plus travel time.

Friday – my running time kept getting delayed. First by what was to be a short 20 minutes of school volunteering that grew to over an hour. Then I was helping my husband make our reservations at Pop Century for the Disney Marathon Weekend (YEA!!!). When I finally got outside – it was after 10 am with a humidity of about 2000% but not raining.  Those 2 miles I pounded out – well let’s just say I walked – a lot – like most of it….it was horrid.

So today I was concerned with the group run….the group was doing 4 – but according to my 1/2 training schedule I should do 5.  (Then again I should have run 2 other times this week but let’s ignore that for now.)  I decided to lay it on the line and commit myself to 5. For the first 2.5 miles I ran with the girls on the loop.  Then I turned around and headed back to the start while they finished the remaining 1.5 miles ahead.

Overall I was pretty strong – I didn’t take a walk break for at least the first 3 miles. And I think I only took 3 small walk breaks total. Got harder to run and drink for some reason. And I was really proud that I kept up with the group without slowing them down too badly. (But who knows – maybe they all sprinted in glee when I turned around cause I wasn’t holding them back anymore!  Ha ha!)

I managed to make it back to the parking lot as they were driving out.  So not bad….1 hour 5 minutes.  And they all cheered me on and claimed we’ll all do 5 next week.  I felt good about it all.

But what’s the injury you ask? Well…when I got back home I was sitting to take off my shoes and check my email and I had a small pain at the top of my stomach – high up. Great I thought – maybe the new brand of energy gel didn’t agree with me. I wasn’t excited about that given my stomach troubles on Monday. The pain seemed to come and go for a bit and I just kept thinking about stomach issues. Then I went to get dressed and discovered the source of my pain – a nasty large red line all the way across my stomach. And it dawned on me – my fuel belt.

I had opted for 2 bottles in my fuel belt given my distance today. But also as I had had a conversation with my doctor about my running and my high blood pressure. She’s a runner too – so she supports me running. But my high bp meds make me a little dizzy sometimes – so I need to keep really well hydrated or I will feel faint during workouts. I didn’t take the meds before my run but I wanted to be sure to keep up the liquids just in case.

Yet – I wound up pulling up the tail of my shirt to wipe my face….which meant the belt rode up against my skin. Yup – apparently I am prone to breaking out in a nasty rash when wearing the belt against my sweaty skin.  Good to know. Painful lesson to learn.

But the more important lesson – I did 5 for the first time in awhile. And while I will probably be sore tomorrow – I’m back on track for Disney. Giddyup!