Live Laugh Love Run: Half marathon for mom!

I ran a half marathon this past weekend for my momma who passed away from alcoholism at age 48, just 7 years ago. I figured that I was trained enough and ready to do 13.1, but it had been a while since I even did 12 miles. My last half marathon was in September. So I really had to dig deep as I approached the giant hills and the last mile about killed me. The basic route was: Around Gallup park, UP Huron parkway, UP/down Plymouth road, UP/down Broadway, UP Sunset, down Spring, UP Ashley, around U of M hospital, saw a life-flight helicopter, UP/down Fuller, UP/down Glazier, UP Huron parkway again, back to Gallup. As you can see there were lots of uphills!! I wanted to die.

Every time I wanted to quit I thought of how I would have wanted just one more day with mom. She left this world too soon. But I felt like she was with me the whole way!

Part of me was like why? Why am I doing this. I know that my mom never was a runner. She never really understood the joy that running gave me. But still, I felt connected with her on this run, as I thought about her often and even shed a tear. But it was too cold to cry for too long lol! It was at least double-digits temp wise and I felt good on parts of the run, other parts not so much. I stopped more than I wanted to because of the ginormous hills to climb and just overall being tired, wanting to take pictures, or change music, etc etc. But I will be doing my next actual half marathon March 29th, through Ann Arbor. I've just been running to run the last few months. While I have been putting in the miles, my speed has not improved and my determination has somewhat weakened.

I've also developed some sort of ankle injury after doing yesterday's run. It has always been there, this injury, but flares up at various times. Most of the time it's not that noticeable. Today has been bad on the pain scale. I've been icing, and taking ibuprofen. I would like to run a few miles on my lunch tomorrow since I will be working at home. Pray my ankle feels better!! I think its possibly some kind of a tendonitis since it has never really gone away. I've blamed it on twisting/landing on it wrong, and never fully let it heal. This could be the case too.

With that said, I still hope and pray that the RE will be ok with running since I do have a half on March 29, and another on May 31. He was ok with this before we got pregnant with #1, and seemed to think I could continue doing what makes me happy. I read all kinds of articles saying cardio could negatively influence conception, especially with fertility treatments. This makes me sad. But I'll cross that road if we get to it. My thinking is that my body is used to this process since I have been a runner for so many years now, I have charts that prove I ovulate like clockwork every cycle and still get my period. Apparently that doesn't matter though, to some doctors. If they want me to stop running, even if just for a little while, I will do it. Just won't be very happy. I would at least hope that I could do my spin classes still :)

Here are some pics from yesterday!
Gallup Park