First Place Winner!

I'm still reeling from the half marathon that Jeff and I walked in yesterday. I am still in shock that I won first place in the entire walkers division, and with that, first place in the female walkers group as well!!!! I seriously do not think I've ever placed first in anything in my entire life. And what is so funny is that I totally had no thoughts going into yesterdays race of even placing, let alone finishing first! I'm just going to copy and past what I wrote on the PNP website, as its easier than typing it all out again.

Almost the entire race, Jeff and I were in second and third (we aren't counting the fact that there were four girls ahead of us who were "walkers" but ran part of it, so they would have been disqualified). Anyhow, even those four girls slowed way down in the last half. Well, I had been going slower than I would have for Jeff, so at mile 10.5, Jeff said to just go and win it if I could. There was only this old guy (probably 70+ years old) who was way ahead most of the race, and the two girls that would run occassionally. Well, I didn't cheat at all...I walked, but man, I was MOVIN'! I pass the girls just before mile 12 and passed the old man just after mile 12 and took a big lead the rest of the way. So I ended up finishing first place overall in the walkers division, and first place in the female walker division. Jeff did great too. He finished second place in the mens' walker division. Not sure where overall...maybe 6th in walkers? But I'm so totally excited about this! I honestly don't think I've ever finished in first place in ANYTHING my entire life. I CERTAINLY didn't go into that half marathon this morning thinking I'd get first place! Anyhow, I was so exicted and couldn't wait to share with you all!

And I'm SO proud of Jeff. He was such a trooper and really was moving the entire race. He's probably going to hate me now though. He's sitting in a tub full of cold water to try and recoup. I am not sure he'll be able to even walk the rest of the day! lol! But he really did great. I'm really so proud of him!

Now, we checked the race results and it looks like the two girls who came in after me (the ones who had cheated by running for parts of it) were disqualified (as they SHOULD have been!). however, they still walked home with the plaques. Obviously someone reports that they were running. Oh well. Still, I'm pretty happy with the outcome for both Jeff and I.

However, I'm VERY sore today. The feet are good. I just am VERY sore behind the knees. I probably pulled some muscles or tendons or something. My butt and hamstring muscles are sore, but more like I just did a strength training workout, so they don't bother me, but the place behind my knees is very sore. I don't even think I can run like I had planned to tomorrow, but we'll see how another day of rest and some ice and ibuprofin do with it.

Oh, and to get the tech info in here...I finished the race in 3:10:51 which came out to be around a 14:30 /mile pace. Pretty decent I think. What's really funny is that for some reason, they have my time on the results page down as 2:40:51 which has me beating my RUNNING half marathon time by 2 minutes as a walker!!!! lol! But I know the real time was 30 minutes more than that, as they started the walkers out 30 minutes before the runners.

So, it was fun. Now I'm hoping that on wednesday I'll have clearance to start running again. I have a 15 mile run to do on saturday. Then depending on what the doc says, and whether or not jeff wants to do it, we may sign up to run in "The Spirit of Columbus Half Marathon" the following weekend. I'm scheduled for a 16 mile run that weekend, but would just replace that with the half marathon. I would probably just do a 3 mile run later in the day that day to get in the mileage.

Anyhow, I'll know more after wednesday, and after Jeff and I have recovered some more. I had thought I might do a six mile run today, but there is no way. I need more rest time and I need to listen to my body. So today is a day of rest. No ST either. tomorrow I may attempt the run, and if I can, I"ll get in a ST session too. This week may be a 2 ST session instead of 3, depending upon our recovery.