Last "long" run

Last "long" run  before the Yuengling Shamrock Half Marathon next Sunday.  It was scheduled to be 5 miles.  Sadly, it was shortened. 

The first issue I encountered and was going to ignore was my head.  Hmmm...that sounds odd... I woke up with a headache, which isn't unusual for me.  I had a slice of bread with peanut butter and assumed it would take care of it.  By the time I left the house the head didn't hurt as much.  I assumed it was cured.

Wrong.  I started running and as my feet hit the ground my head pounded.  Not horribly.  But enough for it to be a bother.  I was not a happy camper.  But I kept going, especially when I head Garmin go off at the first half mile time and saw I ran under 6 minutes.  That rarely happens. 

The second reason (and more important reason) that I bailed early on this run didn't happen until a mile into it.  Let's back up.  Yesterday at work I was placing a 40 pound box on a shelf that is over my head.  In order to do this, I have to stand on my tip toes to get it high enough to slide in.  Well, I did what I always do and got up on my tip toes to shove the box onto the shelf when my right ankle twisted sideways on me.  It hurt.  I will say I am proud of the fact that I didn't drop the box on my other foot.  I got my balance back and got the box on the shelf.  After a few minutes the pain in my right ankle went away and I didn't think anything of it.

Well, it came back this morning.  But not until I started downhill.  Odd... I made it up one of the killer hills on my route, handled the straightaway fine.  But, when I came back around to go back down the hill the ankle hurt.  And every downhill after that it hurt.  Ugh. 

I had decided before the run that anywhere between 3 and 5 miles would be ok today.  I relaxed the mileage because we're running one of my favorite races of the year tomorrow - Kelly St. Patrick's Day 5k.  :-)  Well, since my ankle and head hurt, I gave in and at 3 miles, stopped.  I must say, it was a good run though.  Three miles in 38:27.  That's speed demon for me.  Crazy how I can run faster when I'm in pain than when I'm not....