Our hometown race! I love this race for several reasons... some of the course runs through USM (My school), it's LOCAL (no travel $$), my friends always run, great organizers, AND they have a great after party!
However, this year I was not so sure I was going to run it. Since my recent couple of marathons, I've been dealing with 2 issues 😔 Tendonitis in my foot, and piriformis / sciatic in my hip on the same leg as the bad foot! And this is my bad leg to start with!! If you've ever ran with me long enough you know that my right foot tends to slap the ground harder especially after a run for awhile. Years ago I had a disc in my lower back compress my nerve and had a lot of nerve issues in that leg for a long, long time! Months of PT and doctors visits. I still have 2 bulging disc in my lower back, one in my mid back and 1 new bulge in my neck below my fused 2 disc so I guess you can say I'm one big party of bulging disc. The doctor has not told me to quit running. He has told me to be careful. To pay attention to my body and take breaks from pounding from running constantly. That's probably why I picked up swimming and biking a couple years ago.
So I decided if I was doing the half it would be by jog/walk intervals. I needed a long run since Big Sur is coming up in 3 weeks, but I also didn't need the constant pounding from running the half by running alone. I am so thankful for Felicia who said she would do intervals with me. I don't mind running alone, but it's nice to have friends to chat with too. Candy & Michelle wanted to run to see if they could get a PR. Anna also said she would do intervals, but she ran off and left me and Feleica in the beginning. 😜 She's a tad like me... she likes to start off fast. 😍 I had promised myself I would not get sucked into the normal thing of seeing people I know and trying to stay up with them. I was going to maintain my jog/walk and save my foot. 😀 And that's what me and Felicia did for 13.4 miles (course was a tad long.. or maybe we weaved a tad too much..LOL My watch never is exact... I don't run the tangents well.) We finished in 2:30:48. I felt really good about that time with 2 min jog and 45 sec walk breaks. 💓
We ran into my friend Jennifer, aka wonder Jenn, she was running with her son who is 12 and ran his first half marathon!
The gang, except for Candy who had left to go to her grands soccer game. We also missed Ronnie & Be and Penny! They were not able to be there this year. I also saw several of my other friends, Frank, Krista, Lyndie, Serina, Kathy, Missy, & Mr. D that I should have grabbed a pic with and didn't 😢 It was wonderful seeing so many friends out on the course.
So that's a wrap on the Hattiesburg Half. I encourage everyone to do this race. They have a 5K, 10K or half marathon option. It starts and ends in downtown Hattiesburg. GREAT EVENT! Love our medals! I should have stopped at the Zoo when we ran there and grabbed a picture.
I will say I'm a good bit tired today. Yesterday was supposed to be my rest day and I worked in my yard all day except for the hour I went to church. My arms are so sore today! and I had swim this morning. However, it's doing things that suck sometimes for growth to happen. Sometimes I feel like I'm burning the candle at both ends. Working full time, maintaining a home and training full time. I'm sure some of you feel the same way. Sometimes or maybe most times I feel I'm not ready for an event. Like my BIG SUR coming up in 3 weeks. Due to my foot I haven't ran 18-20 miles what I prefer to do before a marathon so it makes me feel not ready. However there is one thing I've learned..... It comes down to HEART and MIND. Being prepared is doing everything you can prior to an event to be ready. But on race day.... If you don't have the heart or the mindset... well, let me just say... it probably ain't going to happen. You will hit a wall at some point and you must have the mindset and heart to push passed that and finish. Heart and Mind will take you places you never could imagine. So here's my tip today.... are you ready in mind and heart??? I'm sure working on mine for Big Sur because it's a tough course and I'm going to need it come 4-24-22.
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