I had this entire blog written in my head before I finished the half marathon on Saturday.  If you haven’t taken one of my classes lately, trained with me or read my blog a few posts ago – you not might know I have had a real bum bum.  Seriously, I bruised/cracked my tailbone less than 2 weeks ago.  I still can’t do sit-ups!!  (Feel free to scroll down and read the post about the donut for a detailed account of what happened – it’s pretty funny).

I wasn’t sure if I would be able to or even if I should do the half considering I took almost 2 weeks off and couldn’t really do much.  I jogged 7 miles 3 days before the race in a bit of pain and I said – “Okay, it’s going to be a beautiful Saturday, I paid $60 to run this thing, so I can go and walk when I need to and ENJOY it.”  Easier said than done for a competitive person.  🙂  

I PR’d this race last year with a 1:35, so I was looking forward to seeing what I could do this year.  However, with a literal pain in my ass I was forced to rest, rest, rest before the race.  

Saturday was a bit chilly waking up.  I got my race packet, proceeded to lose my driver’s license (which was found not to worry), and headed to the start line.  I was armed with my phone in case of an ass emergency and had Spottily radio ready to rock.  I rarely ever race with music, but my mind was made up to jam to some tunes, run easy and enjoy the race.  The goal – to finish with no injuries!  

Usually in a race, if someone passes me I try to catch them…  OR I keep my eye on some lucky girl in front of me and say in my mind – I’m coming for you!!  Well, not this Saturday…  

The first mile I felt GOOD!! So, the little devil on my shoulder said – “Wow, NO PAIN!  You’re FIIIIIINE…  You CAN race this thing. Time to push a little harder.” Then the angel on my other shoulder said – “MEGAN!!!  Enjoy it, hold back, it’s not worth further injuring yourself…”  I listened to her.  I let people pass me left and right, waved to my friends at the turnaround, had a chat with one of my BBC students, listened to music and finished feeling GREAT!!!  Sunday – I was barely sore and felt like a million bucks.

Moral of the story – sometimes holding back is what you truly need.  In the end, I finished, got my finisher’s medal, felt great and now can continue to work out this week.  No PR’s, no records broken, and that’s OKAY.  I always say in my classes – PUSH HARDER and don’t leave without knowing you gave it ALL. But sometimes just being there for the workout is enough.  Showing up is enough. Knowing that you gave the best for that particular day is enough.  Know it.  Believe it.  And you’ll achieve it.  

I’ll leave you with a picture of Zoe, my boxer wearing my finishers’medal.:)