A different kind of PR

This morning sucked.

I'm just going to be honest.

But let's start with last night. My great friend Ali and our other friend Vanessa road tripped it down to Colorado Springs and spent the night at Ali's parents house.

Her stepdad made us some fabulous spaghetti and we spent the evening lounging around.
And setting up our running gear, and oohing and ahing over our sweet free stuff!

We knew we had an early morning ahead of us and so we decided to presume with some Nyquil... straight from the bottle.

I have no idea why we have sunglasses, but it made sense at the time.

But I'd absolutely love for you to try and figure out what in the world is happening here :)

Thankfully the Nyquil knocked us out. Not that it made getting up at 5:30 any easier.

But we made it to the starting line and we were ready and rarin' to go!

And while I ALWAYS NEVER watch The Bachelor... :)

One of the old contestants (Andy I think) was there and spoke for a bit

Sarah Micke I have a feeling you know who this is

Then began the race.

I had already mentioned that I had planned on running this race for fun. My body has been crapping out on my lately and with the development of the allergies and asthma my breathing has been mediocre at best.

But it's easy to tell yourself that you're running for fun, and then there is the issue of actually doing it. Thankfully Ali read us a little devotion about being nice to our bodies when running and how by listening to our bodies they will actually thank us in the end!

Quite frankly I got a severe stomach cramp, as in my entire stomach seized up, and it was there for the first 4 miles or so... excellent.

Miles 5-8 were great and at mile 8 I truthfully didn't believe I was even going to finish the race. My entire body was weak and I even had to stop and sit a few times. I had chills for the last couple miles as well... kind of weird considering it was in the 80's.

And I walked like nobodies business. Typically I cringe at the thought of walking during any sort of run, but today I didn't care. I was nice to myself, I listened to my body, and I didn't beat myself up over the fact that I was going ridiculously slow.

And after making friends with some other women that were walking/jogging I finally made my way to the finish... 15 minutes slower than my half marathon last year in Korea... and 29 minutes slower than my Alaska time :)

But I finished.

Honestly this race was HORRIBLE, I have never felt worse during or after a run. 

And while I may not have run a great race, PR'ed or done anything amazing. I was able to listen to myself and be kind to myself. I had grace with my body's limitations, and that feels better than any time I could've gotten. 

and maybe tomorrow after my legs start working again I'll be able to take the advice of the fun necklace we got in lieu of a medal.

run.celebrate.laugh.