I ran 13 miles

Well I guess 13.1 to be exact. And I write the story, because I know if I just post a pix about my race I will get questions about my hip. My hip is my most popular body part! So here goes.

In June I signed up for the Timpanogos half marathon. My two neighbors signed up and asked me if I wanted to sign up with them. I was quite hesitant for two reasons. One, running in a race has never really appealed to me. I have been running for several years now and I do it because the times I don't hate it, I love it. For me, it is about feeling good mentally and physically. I was also worried that forcing myself into a training schedule would tip the scales more into the hate category. I definitely didn't want that. It is a fine balance.

Two, despite taking 9 months off to let my hip heal from surgery,  it was still aching after running and I couldn't get an answer from my Dr. as to why. So to push myself further didn't really seem like a good idea.

But, since my Dr. hadn't told me to stop running because of the aching, I signed up and started training. My goal was to run 13 miles. No times to beat, just to be able to run the entire time.

Finally about three weeks ago, after my hip was continuing to ache a lot, I nailed down my Dr. His best guess (and it was a guess) was that my hip capsule was tight and I needed to stretch it out. He told me that if that didn't work then another MRI would be needed.

So, I got online and found 4 stretches that are suppose to stretch your hip capsule, whatever that even is, and I added them to the ever growing list of stretches that I do religiously after every run.

And you know what? The aching is gone. Totally.

Waiting to start

And my race? Other than a stretch around mile 9 and then again at mile 11, I felt good the entire time. I would never call running 13 miles easy by any stretch, but I was surprised that it wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. Not only did I run the entire race without walking, I finished it faster than I thought I would. So, all in all it was a good experience.

Will I run another? Well...never say never. But for now, I am very much looking forward to running just because I love it. That is of course, when I don't hate it.