Good For Her Age

Even while I’ve been bemoaning my slow-down and physical ailments, three really wonderful things still happened in this vicinity, so I had to share.

That last race that nearly killed me? I got 2nd place in my age group! (Partly because it was such a small race and partly because well, let’s face it, I’m old. But I was told I really don’t have to mention either of those things.)

What does one win for getting 2nd in her age group, you may wonder? Well, I don’t know because of course, not realizing I had placed, I didn’t stick around after the race for the awards ceremony. But all is not lost! 

Because I actually also won 3rd place (again in my age group) in the Florida Road Races “Starfish Race Series” (their medals have the cutest little running starfish), by doing 4 out of the 5 races this organization puts on, and getting a certain amount of points based on how I placed in those races. 

The email that alerted me to this wonderful result of me running a 15k down at Fort De Soto last Fall (featured at the end of my Sept blog post), the Holiday Halfathon in December, the St. Petersburg Distance Classic in Feb and then this most recent race at the beginning of this month, stated there will be a season ending party and awards presentation mid-April. My hope is that if I show up for that I may also be able to belatedly claim any award I may have gotten from the Shamrock Race. 

I’m expecting the prize to be another t-shirt or medal so nothing terribly exciting but I think I would probably go to the party even if there was no award, because it is a really sweet race series and I want to support the organization. So I will report back on that in April!

And if all that weren’t enough consolation and reward for carrying on in the face of my recent struggles, I also won 3rd place (in my gender) in the Orange Theory Fitness Transformation Challenge that I was participating in for 8 weeks running from mid-January until early March. 

I didn’t think I was doing that well, because I wasn’t very disciplined with my food (nothing compared to what I did last spring for my one and only bikini/fitness competition, that was completely brutal!) and when I weighed myself the scale really wasn’t going down, but then the InBody scan taken at the beginning versus the one taken at the end, showed my body composition had really changed, by losing almost 4% body fat and gaining almost 4 pounds of muscle over the course of those 8 weeks. The prize for coming in 3rd place is a $50 gift card, haza! 

So, the journey continues but I found this all really really encouraging just when I needed it. I face another half marathon race this weekend and the weekend after that my season ending trail race, where I’ll do just one 16 mile loop on the trail where I did two 16 mile loops last year to complete my one and only ultra-marathon. My goal right now is to just run*jog*walk as pain free as possible, enjoying every minute that I can. 

If there’s anything these 3 recent events prove, it’s to not get discouraged because you just never know what’s possible! And, like me, you might be doing better than you think.

2023 Racing Season, So Far

 “Well I don’t know, but I’ve been told/You never slow down, you never grow old.” ~ Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

I hate to admit this, even to myself, but I’m finding it harder and harder to do these half marathons. And yet I’ve already done 4 of them this racing season, which is more than I have done in some entire years in the past. I’m a Gemini so I’ve always been a mess of contradictions like that!

Before this most recent race, the medal and the reward eating afterwards - 

I still love doing these races, but I’ve gotten so dang slow it’s like I hit a wall right after turning 50 and after getting my PR last year in New Orleans; it’s all right there in black and white, impossible to deny or contradict.

 

This last half marathon (not showing yet on Athlinks.com) was my slowest yet at 2 hours 34 minutes and there were demoralized moments in that hot sun, with legs feeling like lead and my lower back and left hip hurting so much, I was afraid maybe I wasn’t going to make it. They’d find my sweat-soaked body on the trail in Fort De Soto and that would be it.

😁

And I’m starting to feel a little like a woman who can’t leave an abusive relationship, but I am doing some things to help myself: I got X-ray and MRI done on my lower back and left hip last week, I see my new spine doctor tomorrow to review those reports. 

The prior MRI on my neck that I feared would lead the doctor to tell me I had to quit running such long distances, only led to a probable diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome and me wearing stabilizing splints at night to stop my hands from going numb while sleeping (ANOTHER troublesome thing to come on only after turning 50 WTF).

I have a couple weeks with no races but then I have another half on March 25th and then a 25k/16 mile trail run on April 1st (half of my 50k ultra marathon I did last year). Then break for the summer and October is the Clearwater Rock ‘n Roll half marathon that was rescheduled from last year, due to Hurricane Ian. 

I am equal parts looking forward to and dreading all future races but I hope to have myself sorted out at least by the Fall, if not by these next ones. And if I can just resist signing up for other races I normally do in November until I know I will be fit to run them, that will be one minor victory. Meanwhile I guess I just have to feel good about still being able to do this type of long distance running. 

And grateful - above all grateful! During the toughest parts of any race (or training run, for that matter), I pray “Thank you God for allowing my body to do this” and “Please God help me get through this” - and so far, it’s working. I may not be fast, and I may not ever be as fast again as I was about a year ago on that beautiful day in New Orleans, but I remain an endurance runner - so all I have to do is endure.