My weekend has been a roller coaster of ups and downs and I only have my love of running to thank for getting me through it. OK well maybe some emails with Mr. SOTSS (a.k.a. Mr. Calm and Smart and Practical and Helpful….I love him!). Oh and of course good times with old friends and a whole lotta sangria helped me too. #keepinitreal

So let’s backtrack. Friday morning I trekked into the city for my 6th visit with Dr. Williams. We worked on my upper quad/groin area and he helped separate a muscle that was “sticky”. I already have appointment #7 set up. So much for “we can fix you in 3-4 visits”. My friend Lisa who also went to Dr. Williams said he said the same thing to her. LOL! But she was fixed eventually. And I will be too! I met the boy for a quick lunch before heading back home. Mind you it was the first official day of Spring and we got hit with about 4 inches of snow!

I laid low for the rest of the night knowing I had a 5 am wake up call so I could get myself out to Queens to work at the Queens 13.1 race Saturday morning.

Saturday morning i sprung up and went outside to warm up the car and clean the snow off of it. I didn’t have a chance to eat breakfast but did bring a travel mug of coffee for the hour long ride to Queens. I arrived to a winter wonderland around the World’s Fair Grounds and reported to duty.

I was working solo at the NJ Marathon tent set up right by the finish line so I didn’t take a single break for food/drink or even to use the rest room for the entire 6 hours I manned the tent.

It was in the 30s when I started the shift and while I dressed appropriately my feet were really cold. But the sun started to peek out and then before you knew it people were finishing the race and walking up to ask questions. My friend Jorge ran and came by to say hello on his way to the most important post-race pitstop, the beer garden!

Most people just like free stuff and we had lots of 13.1 and 26.2 magnets to give away but I can’t tell you how many people said they had already registered and many were repeat runners who couldn’t say enough great stuff about the NJ Marathon. Of course my heart swelled! The guy at the vendor tent next to me served 6 years in the military. We were chatting and he said he ran the Marine Corps Marathon because he was able to get a bib. He ran it having never even run a half marathon! His longest run was only 14.5 miles. But he made it through the marathon ok and is signed up to do it again this year. He also got into the NYC Marathon via the lottery. Anyway, I convinced him to run a half. So he’s running the half at NJ! Woo Hoo! Sale! and hopefully he’ll love the course and the race.

Oh and then there was a guy in a boot. He had a stress fracture. 36 years of running and he said it was his first stress fracture. Of course he’s supposed to run Boston next month. Not happening. And from what he described he has to re-qualify to run next year. There is no deferment for injury. That really blows.

I was one of the last people to leave and I noticed the port-o-potty cleaner had arrived and was already cleaning them out. Something I don’t think I would ever want to do for a living.

OK now on to my Sweat Out The Small Stuff situation…

When I returned to my car 6 hours after I had parked it, I saw that my windshield was cracked (pretty bad too). My poor brand new Subaru Forester had a boo boo! Perhaps it was the lack of food and water or the fact I was exhausted from waking up so early and then standing on my feet for 6 hrs straight, or maybe it was just because i’m the sensitive type, but I got so upset I started to cry. I couldn’t let it go. The crack consumed my energy and mind for the entire drive home! I had so many questions running through my head. What will it cost? Do I go through insurance? How did it happen? It wasn’t that way in the morning? Did some one vandalize my car or was it just a freak thing because of the ice and snow?

Look, I’m totally aware that this is such a small thing to fret about in the grand scheme of life. I’ve been through worse and I’ve got a lot of great stuff going on in my life right now but i have accepted that I don’t have a stellar initial response to bad things from little nuisances all the way to large catastrophic events. But the key word is “initial”. Eventually I get it together and do just fine in handling the situation. I just need time to have the pity party, get frustrated and sad and react poorly. And we all know what I’m going to say next. Yup, as soon as I came home I went for a run.

Ironically my knee was really bothering me and this run should have made me even more upset but it didn’t. I decided I’d just call my insurance company in the morning because I needed to hop in the shower and get ready for a very important dinner. I have a group of friends that are all couples that my late husband and I were friends with. I don’t get to see them much these days. For some of the couples it had been more than 5 years since I saw them. I got to see pictures of all of their kids. Everyone’s got kids in the double digits now! We had a delicious dinner at a Portuguese restaurant and I may or may not have had a lot of sangria.

Sunday, I slept in until 8:20! Then someone jumped off the bed and stood in the doorway. I could just feel his stare.

After our walk I called the insurance company and got the bad news that I had a $500 deductible. But then after filing the claim I found out that it doesn’t apply for windshield replacement because my comprehensive coverage has “full glass” on it.

All day, I kept wavering about whether to run and if I did run how many miles would I do? I’m in this weird place with my injury where I don’t feel confident about running more than a few miles at a time. But then I think back to the NYC half last week and know I can run more than that. And next weekend I’m signed up for another half. I have faith in Dr. W. when he says i should keep running and that I’ll be fine to run the full NJ Marathon in 5 weeks but I’m still not confident in myself or my knee. Anyway, I kept procrastinating. Eventually I took Duncan to the park and we spent some time on the playground.

By the time we arrived home it was 3pm and I basically procrastinated for almost 2 more hours before I finally decided to go for a run. I drove to the beach since I knew the path was loose gravel and FLAT and figured that would be easiest on my knee. On the way Jane texted me to say she just registered for the NJ Marathon. She had been on the fence for a while so this was super exciting news! I met Jane at a training run for NJ back in 2013. And we crossed the finish line together last year! While I might be dropping to the half this year I’m still excited to see her in the corrals that morning and I’ll be sure to run her in the last mile too! After that text exchange I was so pumped. I busted out 7 miles!

The knee definitely feels irritated while I’m running. But it isn’t constant. It comes and goes. I really hope we’re almost done rehabbing it. I’ve been using KT Tape and I think that helps a bit. I better buy myself another roll. Running in the evening from 5:15-6:30 was so nice! The light was beautiful. Everything glowed.

Moral of the story here is the days will keep coming. There will always be another cracked windshield or nagging injury. But that is only a splinter of what each day will bring. There will also be progress, healing, repairs and happiness. Happiness because we can control that!

Are you good at dealing with the small stuff?

Are you a good first responder? 

Did you run this weekend? Tell me about it. Any nagging injuries?