"Blackbird singing in the dead of night, take these broken wings and learn to fly." - Beatles
Ahhh...
...today was an overall exhausting and somber day. This morning we got a call from my grandmother saying that her fiance, and for all accounts, a family member of ours over the past ten years passed away last night from a heart attack, after he had left Boston to fly home to England and was transferring flights in Frankfurt. This really set the tone for a day of gray skies, funky weather, tears, memories, and consoling. I was really glad to be home with my parents to accept this news, and was disappointed that my brother wasn't able to make it back with me. I decided to dedicate my run to Roy Martin today, a man who truly made an impact on us Shirley's and everyone else who was fortunate to know him. He had been SO supportive of me throughout this training, it really hit me that he wouldn't be here to celebrate the milestone of finishing it.
After procrastinating heading over to the Ashley Reservoir in Holyoke by doing a little damage at the mall, my Mom and I reached our destination around 3:00. I was a teenyyyy bit nervous because this was the first time I've done a long run since my injury, and I wanted it to go well so badly with next weekend's half marathon coming up. I had talked with our neighbor Brian yesterday, who recommended staying off of the treadmill and concrete, and running on paths, which this happened to completely be! The paths, after all of this rain and snow, was full of mud and puddles to avoid. I think it was actually a little bit of a blessing, even though I got my brand new sneakers pretty dirty :(, because I had that extra little bit of cushioning as I landed my heel down.
I was really surprised, my stride seemed somewhat normal (not on the balls of my feet yet) without much pain at all. I think it was more of an adjustment to just be out running for as long as I was, since I hadn't done it in TWO weeks! For a brief period of time my ankle hurt a little bit, but when I shifted my weight to the inside of my foot it seemed to ease up. It was definitely a struggle though... I don't prefer running loops, but did three times around the 3.25 reservoir, and then ran back to my Mom at the very end, which was at least the extra .25 miles I needed. SHE, by the way, was my amazing water girl. I gave her my water bottle to carry as she walked around the Res in the opposite direction, so every few miles I was able to rehydrate and have a little spurt of encouragement. When the puddles were like an obstacle course, and the wind was blowing cold air, and my quads were hurting, and I was getting water in my shoe, and I was sticking in the mud, I would ask Roy to help me out and help give me strength to keep pushing. There was NO WAY I was not going to finish all three laps, and it helped to be focusing on a reason for running, for someone who always believed in me.