After The Sickness

The kids are healthy again. Anna got it bad on Thursday and was out of commission all day. But, come Friday morning, both she and Sam came down the stairs singing and dancing. I took that as a sign that they were feeling better.

On Friday I got to do my cousin's wedding, which was a blast. Even the part where I had Heidi pledge her "broken love" for Jeff. Her reaction helped me realize my mistake, which was corrected immediately, and laughs were had. It was a beautiful ceremony. Lots of family, including my almost-90-year old grandpa. When my wife said, "Didn't Ryan do a good job?" he replied, "Yeah, he did great. Not as good as I coulda did, but he did good." Zing! I was so happy he was there.

So, yesterday morning I got to go out running. I was a little anxious, but mostly excited. The only time I went out this week was for a short run on Tuesday, so I was wondering how my body would react. It was in the low 30s and windy, so I bundled up, put The Gomers on my iPod to hear the big reveal, and headed out.

The run went really well overall. In fact, I set a PR for the 10k distance (1:04 on the dot). At 1:03:09 I said to myself, "You've got 51 seconds to get to that line. KICK IT." And I did. That was really fun.

I was also thinking toward that end of the run that...the half marathon seems totally doable. In fact, by the time I run the Berbee Derby at the end of this month, I'll already have run, like, eight 10Ks. At least. So, it'll be nice to have a time goal, but I really think that I'm ready for longer runs. A couple things concern me about that, though. One is that it'll take more time. Also, I'm getting sore during runs, now. Like, my hips and knees. It doesn't really hurt, I just notice more than I have in the past. I'll need to do more strength work and stretching to stay safe and healthy. Which is good, just more time consuming.

Those are my thoughts today.

As I write these entries, I'm realizing...I really love this stuff. This running thing really has a hold of me. And I like it.

I finally got to run again yesterday morning. I was a little anxious, but more excited than anything.