Tomorrow's Half

I am walking in the Portland Holiday Half Marathon tomorrow. I have been looking forward to this event for awhile now because of the excitement of the holidays and because it is my last official event of the year. I will be rockin' my Santa hat, my bells, and my holiday cheer! However... I won't be rockin' the race. It won't be a race for me this time.  

NOTE: In the Life of Jacqueline, the definition of "race"...  it is always against only myself, my own time, my own record.  I am never out to beat other participants - the true meaning of "racing" - and I will never come in first, second, tenth  or even twentieth!  (Okay, maybe if there were only 21 participants, I would!  I CAN'T allow myself to be LAST!) And I am totally fine with that!

Tomorrow's half is going to be like a training walk. I am going to walk it and enjoy it. The point is to finish and not to worry about the time. I'm walking with my friend, Linda, who also has the same mindset so we will stick together on this one. Linda is nursing a sore knee as a result of walking the Las Vegas Rock 'n' Roll Half last weekend in a rockin' time of 3:06:17 in the freezing cold temps of the desert! (The marathon was at night and went down the Strip! How cool is that?!)

Where is all this coming from? Well... I hurt myself. In fact, more directly, I hurt my back. (On top of the back issues I already have.) I feel a little dumb about it but here's the truth. I learned about a Sit-Up Challenge from a fellow blogger, V, and I - being the gung-ho person I am - decided to take the challenge! No need to go any further here in explanation... you get the picture! Yes, it was a dumb idea, I know. The "sit-ups" you do are actually crunches so I wasn't being REALLY stupid, just KINDA stupid. Anyway, I took the "initial test" (results were pathetic) on Tuesday. On Wednesday, I. COULD. NOT. MOVE. I could NOT stand up straight. I could not breathe without pain. I had to take major pain pills and a muscle relaxer to function, which meant no alcohol for me at my holiday luncheon with friends. Darn it. Thursday was more of the same. It even hurt to drive because when I went around corners my back felt the pull of the car. THAT'S  how bad it was. On Friday I was finally able to breathe a little easier, stand up straight, and get myself to acupuncture - where I had to admit my stupidity. (In my defense, in Pilates we do a form of a crunch with our feet up in the air and that has never caused me back pain. In this challenge, I tucked my feet under the couch and that's what caused the problem. I had no idea holding my feet down would put more strain on my back muscles. Now I know.) Today I am much more improved but getting up out of a chair still hurts.  I am still unable to bend down to pick up anything but I do feel a lot stronger and I don't feel the need to take anymore pain pills. Whew. I survived it. NEVER AGAIN. No more crunches for this girl.

So tomorrow's half will be a challenge but I'm determined to go for it. I'm not having trouble walking, just bending. However, I had to make a very real promise to my very concerned husband - if I start to really hurt and suffer, I will drop out of the race. That would greatly disappoint me but it would be better than disappointing Husband by hurting myself further. I can't do that to him... or to myself.

Hoping for the best tomorrow!  It should be a lot of FUN!

Best wishes to our friend, Sue, who is doing the Holualoa Half Marathon in Tucson, Arizona tomorrow morning! We'll be thinking of you and cheering you on! You go, girl!