8 Reasons Why I'm an Idiot

...and three why I don't care.

If you've been following my blog for the last week or so, you know that I've been having some shin pain late last week. Honestly, it felt pretty good on Friday, but that doesn't excuse anything. Also, if you've noticed my run schedule, even if I don't have it posted on the site, I had a race scheduled this weekend. And it was an ugly one -- the Tour de Pain. Three races in twenty-four hours -- a four mile beach run on Friday night, a 5K Saturday morning, and a one mile "sizzler" Saturday afternoon. All done in August. In Florida. So, without further ado, this is why I'm an idiot:

1. My shin hurt last week, and I still ran the race.
2. I ended up staying awake until 1:00 in the morning on Thursday night/Friday morning. I didn't mean to. After all, I went to bed just after midnight!
3. I got new inserts for my shoes, hoping that they might help. I've heard tell that you should never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never do anything new to your shoes before a race. Luckily, in this case, it worked out OK -- the inserts felt pretty dang good.
   
4. My company went to see The Bourne Ultimatum on Friday during work. And I went with them. And I got movie theater popcorn. Not the healthiest lunch before a race.
5. And then afterwards, I went to Wendy's and got a baked potato.
   
6. I forgot to wrap my leg on Friday night, and I still ran the race. See reason #1.
   
7. I wrapped my leg for the 5K on Saturday. And I ran the race. And it hurt a bit. And I still kept running.
   
8. To top it all off, I ran a full-speed, all-out mile.
   

Now, truth be told, I ran the first two races kinda hard, but not really. I was really going for just barely faster than a typical training run. And really, my leg didn't hurt that bad after the four miler. It was a little worse after the 5K, and it was even a little worse after the mile, but still not so bad that I couldn't walk on it, or anything like that. I was still walking mostly normally.

Now, as for the reasons why I still don't care that I'm an idiot:

1. I was hoping for about 44:00 in the 4 miler. I got 40:51.
   
2. I was hoping for something around 35 in the 5K. I got a 30:50. My second best 5K time ever.
   
3. I was hoping for about 8:00 in the mile, but really expecting something like 8:30. I finished in 7:19. Holy crap!
   

So, the end result is that I ran three great races, all at faster times than I was thinking I would (and these were times I was hoping for during the race, based on how fast I thought I was going). My mental timing may be off, but I'm just pleased as punch that I can do so much, on a slightly injured leg, with so little recovery time in between. Today, my leg hurts a little, but only about as bad as it did last Thursday. I've decided that I will do absolutely no running at least until Saturday, and we'll see how I feel then as to whether I run the four miles with my group or not. But the rest of this week will be cross-training only. Biking and swimming. NO RUNNING!!!!!

Oh, and I did run the first two races as 3 minutes running/1 minute walking. Thank you, Galloway!

But, to finish it all off, this was the end goal:

Yep, it's my first race medal. Ever.