Still running!

I can't believe it has been a month since my last entry on this blog!  I did Bloomsday, and then I ran the Windermere 5K two weeks later.  So, now I have two 5K's and a 12K under my belt!  All of my race numbers are hanging on my corkboard where I can see them every day. 

Bloomsday was an awesome experience.  50,000 runners on a 7.46 mile course.  Quite literally the course was packed from mile 0 to mile 7. 

I have volunteered for Bloomsday in the past, and I remember getting dizzy from the constant mass of people moving by me while I was holding out water for them.  This time though, I was in it!  Because of the excitement of the day, and because the mass of people kept me moving, I ran the majority of the way, walking a couple of times for a few minutes, and then walking up Doomsday hill. 

I did the race in 95 minutes.  When I came around the corner and saw the finish line, I began to cry. 

My next race, the Windermere 5K, was a different story.  Because the 5K is packaged with a marathon and half-marathon, the 5K is run in the afternoon, after all the marathoners have completed the course.  This meant that we started running at 2 p.m., on a warm day. 

I had been training on the course for a couple of weeks, but was not prepared for the heat of that day.  When I crossed the finish line, I was suffering from a little bit of heat exhaustion.  I finished nonetheless, and vowed to stick with morning runs from now on. 

Yesterday, I went running with a friend and was able to keep up with her for the most part.  We ran about 4 miles and it felt great.  My body is still feeling it the days after longer runs (it took me almost a week to recover from Bloomsday) but the fact is, it DOES recover. 

And that's good enough for me.