Catching up

I'm a little behind on my posts. I'll sum up, briefly, what I've been up to lately.

The Crim was a very cool race. I saw some very impressive parts of Flint, and experienced the Bradley Hills. They actually weren't as bad as I anticipated, but any hills at mile 5 of a 10 mile race is never great. It was super humid, and during my warm up I was already sweating like crazy. Mouse and Elizabeth met up at the race, so I got to meet her. So fun! The first 6 miles weren't bad. Mile 7-9, not so much. The most disappointing part wasn't my time (8:55 pace), but that I didn't have fun. Running, especially races, are suppose to be FUN. I wasn't relaxed, and definitely didn't have my head in the game. I just now had a chance to look at how I did. In my age group, I placed 117 out of 437. Pleasant surprise.

The worst part of that day was about 2 hours afterwards. Mouse and I did a 3 mile cool down to get our mileage in for the day. (The whole time I was thinking, "when did I become that kind of runner? Run a 10 mile race and then go run more for fun!?!") Then, we met up with Elizabeth at the food/beer tent to cash in our ticket for a free beer and pizza. My abdomen had been bothering me during the race, but not so severe I had to stop. Now was a different story. While the girls were chatting, I went outside to get some fresh air. Soon my abdomen hurt so badly, I was literally laying down on the blacktop. There was no way I was walking anywhere. After a bit it passed, but in the interest of not getting killed, Mouse drove us back home.

That night we went to German Park to drink buckets of beer. We were all dragging due to the race, but had fun regardless. Seriously though. Can you have a bad time with a bucket of beer in front of you, with a straw sticking out of it to make the drinking easier? (thanks to Nat for bringing me a straw!!! I LOVED it!!!)

Sunday, I was bound and determined that I was going to get my butt into gear. I was going to take the Crim as a benchmark as to how I am doing and what I need to accomplish before Detroit. I went out for an 8-mile run (9:45 pace) and felt fine.

Monday I didn't make it out of bed in time to workout. I had an appointment at U of M to see what options I had left. He gave me two: a nerve block or surgery. I went for the nerve block. Not super excited, but it was the less invasive of the two. September 11 is my evaluation appointment, which lasts 2-4 hours. I'm a little apprehensive as to why it will take that long. Everyone is trying to get me to change the date though - they said it wasn't a good date to be doing anything like that. I wasn't in the best of moods when I got to work, but hey, I'm sick and tired of this effecting my life and I guess I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get my life back to normal.

Ricky kicked my ass with a great workout that night though. Movement and laps - it was just one of those tough workouts that make you feel so accomplished afterwards.

Tuesday, I ran a 6-miler (8:41 pace) and, again, felt pretty good. My confidence started to slowly come back.

Tonight, I was set to meet with Ricky, as usual. My abdomen has been bothering me pretty badly the last couple of days. He could tell I was in a lot of pain, but I didn't want to admit defeat. I agreed to bump down the intensity, because there was no way I was going to get in the quality of workout I should. Half an hour into our workout, he stopped and told me to go home. I was so damn upset. Not at him, he's just looking out for me, but at myself. I feel like such a wimp because I couldn't do my workout. Suck it up - right...?

I am sick and tired of it interfering with my life. Not sure what the doctors will say on the 11th, they may decided I'm not a candidate for a nerve block. If that were to happen, the only thing left is a scope of my pelvic area. Why didn't any of the other treatments work? What could I have done differently? What the fuck is wrong with me? Will they be able to fix me? I think I'm just going to take a pain pill and go to bed early tonight.

Well, I need to end this on a happy note. So, here's a little ray of sunshine. Things with the JP are going very well. He's meeting my parents this weekend - but it is not a big deal. We're going to be down there for a wedding on Saturday and we'll have to go by to get up to Ann Arbor for the reception. So, we'll see how that goes. I'm okay about it now, but I'm sure Saturday I'll start freaking out. I've met most of his siblings now, and the word back is they like me. Mouse is convinced we're going to get married. I'm not sure about that, but I'm having fun and things are going well. I figure don't stress about it and just enjoy the ride.