I almost cheated

July 29  Plan:  5k tempo   Actual:  5k done.  Just barely, but done.

I DID NOT want to run tonight.

NOT

AT

ALL.

I knew I'd have time tonight so instead of getting up stupid early I decided to run after work.  Which I kinda hate.  And boy howdy did I pay for that decision!

Got home from work and it was crazy overcast.  Like, skies about to open up and drench the universe overcast.  So I threw on my clothes and headed out the door as soon as was humanly possible.

5k was on the plan tonight.  Okay, fine.  5k.  No big whoop.  A wee bit longer than the 3 and 4 I've been doing lately but hey, 5k ain't no thing.  I've done it a bunch of times.

Except tonight. Tonight, it was a thing.

First, for whatever reason my lower calves, kinda like where my heels meet my calves, were crazy sore around the 2k mark.  What the what? Never had issues there.  Annoying as hell.  And my knees were a bit twitchy on the outside, too.  Huh.  Maybe I didn't stretch enough after my long run this weekend?  Who knows.  All I DO know is that everything felt tight.  Ugh.

To add insult to injury I forgot to take my zantac when I got home before I headed out.  I get heartburn quite frequently and usually it's very well controlled with a simple wee pill.  One in the morning and I'm generally good to go.  Unless I have a second coffee in the afternoon, then attempt to run.  Yyyyeeeeahh.  One pill pre- run makes everything fine.  Forgetting?  Not so much.  And that's what happened today.   The forgetting.

So there I was, hobbling along the sidewalk, feeling a fiery burn in my throat and, oh yeah, that familiar twinge in my bowels to top it all off.  Good times, I tell ya, good times.  It was a real pleasure to be me earlier this evening.

Thankfully I managed to escape the rain for the most part.  Shortly before the 4.5k mark, when I was actually quite close to home, the drops started. I was in pain, had heartburn, I needed a bathroom, and now I was getting wet.  Never, never ever ever in my life, have I been so close to just packing it in and saying a giant fuck you to the running gods as I was in that moment. 

I could see my house.  Where it's dry, where there are meds and, perhaps most importantly, three toilets - one just inside the front door.  I could SEE it as I rounded the corner.

Just tweak the Nike app, the devil on my shoulder said.  No one has to know.  You work hard, you run hard, it's less than .5 of a km, you barely made it out here tonight to start off with, you should be proud that you made it this far.   Doooooooo it.

And yet I ran on, right past my house and up to the corner so I could turn around, come back and hit my 5k mark.  For realz. 

That was close.  Crazy close.  Had a horrible pace, worst in ages, but I did it.  Those 5k are real, every single step was taken by yours truly.  And hey - I didn't shit myself.   Two thumbs up right there.

Those are the wee victories I'm going to hold on to.  Small though they may be, tonight they feel mighty indeed.