My wife and I went to the St. Jude Memphis Marathon Weekend expo and picked up our race day packets. We're all set for the half marathon on Saturday. I'll admit I'm a bit nervous. My calf has had six weeks to get better and i haven't been running during that time. I know it's still injured so I know I'll have to walk some if not most of it but I feel like I have to do this. I think my wife will probably end up beating me but that's okay. It's all for the St. Jude kids anyway.
I've read about your injuries. Best of luck. When I ran my first one I was a bit nervous until I remembered,"Hey I'm paying to do this so I better have fun."
Yeah, I'll have to take it easy and I'll only do what I feel won't put me in danger of tearing or breaking something. I also intend to have a lot of fun.
Oh, and they had the official pace car there with all of the names of the St. Jude Hero fundraisers printed on it. My wife just had to take a picture of me pointing to my name.
Good luck! I'll be thinking of you as you push to the max! I'll say a little prayer that you calves hold up and no further injury occurs because you are doing a great thing!
Oh, believe me, there are now worries about winning anything. I'll be starting in the very last corral. I'll admit it's depressing and even a little embarrassing, but it's all good. Anyone who knows me there will know why I'm having to go so slow. Besides, I have to take care of myself. I'm going straight from the race to Arkansas to try to intercept a really nice 10 point I've got patterned. I can't afford to injure myself.
It's finished. I walked all but around two miles but man was I walking. At one point my GPS watch said I was walking a 12:46 minute mile. I must have passed around a thousand people. I ended up finishing in 2:47 - a lot slower than my original goal but considering my condition I'm happy with that.
A big thumbs up to you chief. Doesn't matter if you walk crawl or run. I have huge amounts of "respect" for you.
Heres' a pic of my wife and I after the half. We stopped by St. Jude and had our picture taken in front of the St. Jude statue by the main hospital entrance. Don't the compression tights look great on me?
Every year as part of our fire refresher we have to do a pack test 3 miles in 45 minutes or less. That 12:46 pace is a pretty good pace, pretty impressive that you did that over 13 miles. Heck it hurts more to walk at that pace than jog if you ask me.
