Pittsburgh Marathon Weekend Excitement

This morning I woke up with my left heel feeling 95% better. Woo hoo! I'm beyond happy that I seem to be healing quickly.

But if my foot was better, the rest of my body was not. I am still incredibly sore from the new strength training routine I started Tuesday. It's only a 30-minute routine, but I guess it uses a lot of muscles I hadn't used in my previous routine. So yoga this morning felt exceptionally wonderful.

I went on an easy run on the river trail during my lunch break since I worked from home today. With gloomy skies that looked like rain and no Pirates game, few people were out. I saw the first baby Canadian geese of the season. The protective parents hissed at me even though I didn't even come close. We don't need any more geese, but boy are the fuzzy, yellow babies cute. I did four miles with only small twinges of pain in my heel every so often, and my foot was no worse afterwards. Yay!

It was 55 degrees, made very chilly with wind and cloudiness. I was freezing when I went outside to check the weather even though I had on my very soft, thick Lulu Swiftly (in heathered cadet blue). This is me thinking, "Brrrr!"

I debated my outfit. I know how much I heat up, but I couldn't bear the thought of putting on a tank or even t-shirt. So I left on my long-sleeve Swiftly. When the sun stayed behind the clouds and the wind picked up, I was fine. But as soon as the wind died down and the sun came out, I started baking. But it was mostly fine since the sun was only out for maybe two minutes!

Distance: 4.07 miles; Time: 47:12; Pace: 11:35

Saturday is the Pittsburgh Marathon 5K! When I registered for it the day I finished the JASR 5K, I planned to use this race to meet my the sub-30 time goal that I missed by six seconds in the JASR 5K. Now, though, with my foot on the mend, I'm debating whether I should just run it slowly, for fun, so that my foot doesn't get worse. I'll probably decide the morning of the race. I had marked the race on my calendar as starting at 8:30. Good thing I checked again, because it starts at 8! I'll be picking up my bib at the expo tomorrow night but am bummed at my number: 50879. That's a lot of odd numbers, and I'm an even number person. I hope it's not a sign that the race will be a bad experience.

Sunday I'm volunteering at the finish line chute. I am really looking forward to it! This will be my first time volunteering at a race. I'm excited for everyone running on Sunday, and I can't wait to congratulate runners after they finish.

Update: I told my husband about the baby geese, and he said earlier this week he saw a goose attacking a runner who had gotten too close to the babies. Stay away from the babies!
Good luck to everyone running this weekend!