Block Checked. Not Doing That Again. Or Will I?!?

Sitting here this morning with crazy soreness from the waist down after having run my first official half marathon on Sunday; I analyze my performance and start wondering if I should do this race again. As with the last two Army Ten Milers and the GORUCK Challenge last year, the only training I have done was CrossFit with one exception. Last year, I ran, not much, but I ran once a week. I have not run any distance runs since October of last year; the Army Ten Miler. As you can imagine, running a half marathon cold is ill advised but as I am a crossfitter and am "generally physically prepared" for what life has to throw at me.........Fuckin' YOLO!

The race...... I heard the course had quite a few hills on it. No kidding..... But the route was a nice run through old town Fredericksburg, VA. The hills posed quite a bit of issues with me. Since I haven't be running distance, I had a lot of cramping; first in my right calf (kind of normal) then in my right quad and hamstring. This meant I did a lot more walking than I really wanted to do. At least I had a fellow GRT to run/walk/shuffle with for most of the race. I also found that I really need to have my new socket on my running leg.

Crossing the finish line with my right leg angry and cramping, I immediately thought to myself, "block checked.....I'm not doing this shit again!" Of course I had over an hour in the car on the way home to think it over.... What if I was a little more prepared? What if I actually devoted one day a week to a short run to keep the legs loose? What if I hadn't walked for 45 minutes during the race? I can run this in under two hours, right? Fuck yes, I can!

Does this mean I'm going to abandon CrossFit for distance running? Uhhh.......NO! I still am not a fan of long runs. But this does mean I am going to reestablish my weekly runs, not more than 3-4 miles, in order to keep the legs conditioned. Next year, I won't cramp, I won't have to walk and I'll get in under the 2 hour mark. Actually aiming for closer to 1:30-1:45....

Me with fellow GRTs, Tim Salsgiver and Terry Ford at the finish line.

Finale........A TV show ended and actually made me sad!

I know this has nothing to do with fitness or running a race or anything else really in this blog, but I felt I wanted to put a little note in here. I was injured in 2002, retired in 2003 and entered a workforce that was totally foreign to me in 2004. In 2005, a show debuted that highlighted some of what I thought was funny about working in an office environment. When The Office, the U.S. version, came out, I identified with the show for a weird reason. When I was stationed at Fort Drum, NY, I used to drive home any four day weekend to the DC area. This drive was straight through Scranton, PA. For some reason, I identified with the show and watched it RELIGIOUSLY until the finale last week. Some say the show fell off a bit after Steve Carell left but I continued to watch because I genuinely enjoyed the show.

The finale was truly fitting of the show. It was funny, tasteful, heartfelt and you could tell the actors deeply cared and were saddened by the end of an era. Much like the show The Wonder Years, which I followed through my pre-teen years from start to beginning; watching Kevin grow up as I did, The Office helped me usher in my years of working in an office environment and made the daily grind a little more bearable. Sappy, I know, but true.........  I have to admit, it choked me up a little bit.