Do or Do Not.

There's a lot of "Life" being thrown at me right now. I'm struggling to decide what to tell the world about first.

This is the post I never thought I’d be writing when I started blogging in September. I don’t want to write it. But with each passing day, I’m forgetting details, so I guess I'll get it started and perhaps one day I’ll work up the courage to hit “publish” on this.

No surprises, but the Dark Side Half Marathon falls squarely in the “Do Not” category.

Spoiler alert: It wasn't all bad. I'm just going to save the good... and the ugly... for another day.

But for now... I hate the Dark Side. Definitely following the path to the light from here on out.
 
I did, in fact, log a new half marathon record: Worst. Half. Ever.

By a solid 14 minutes.

It’s not like this caught me by surprise. I knew it was coming. Still, I found myself getting a little choked up every time my Garmin alerted me another slow mile had passed. At the mile 11 marker, I saw the race clock at the exact time I would have needed to cross the finish line to achieve my sub 2 goal.

Yes, there were some tears. This was not the way it was supposed to have happened.

I had been doing the math the entire race, but having the visual confirmation of my impending failure really stung, especially since I had 2.1 miles left to go and knew at that point I’d be clocking the slowest half marathon of my life.

When I ran the Star Wars Rebel Challenge last year, I raced the 10k the day before and still managed to move the needle in the right direction for my half (2:07 compared to 2:10 for Wine and Dine, the race that previously held the honor of being my worst). I didn’t even bother to race the Dark Side 10k on Saturday morning this time around, opting instead to “wog” with my husband. So technically, I should have had more "juice" to race my half this time. It just didn't work out that way. I hate that I've lost so much "ability" in just over a year's time.

I also hobbled away with a fantastic new injury, so my running shoes have been collecting dust since the race. Here’s your warning – the following is not for the squeamish. Doing my best to publish this below the fold, so you have time to detour to Facebook or something where you’ll find happier photos of me.

EWWWWW. That is a gross swollen purple foot.

Photo was taken the day after the race. It's looking much better a week later, but still not 100% healed. I'd say send positive vibes to my foot so that I can pick up training for the Infinity Gauntlet Challenge, but I need positive vibes to go elsewhere right now.