Man, This City is Beautiful!

I wrote on Facebook last night that I was off to yoga class and then a 16 K run and then a nap, but what actually happened was that I went to yoga class, realized that I had forgotten my yoga pants and then went home and had a nap. That's usually the way I like to do things - skip right to the good stuff. But I really needed to go for a run last night because it was the last long run before the half-marathon this weekend. Except that I couldn't do it. Everything in my body was willing me to stay on the couch - my energy levels which were so low as to be bordering on comatose, my "sure to fail" attitude, the cold, the late hour, the insane amount of pain in my shin from a shin splint...especially that last bit. My shin's been bugging me the last couple of runs and the thought of going out for another long run on it was enough to make me roll over and bury my head in the pillow.

But somehow my girlfriend managed to coax me out the door, and I ran 10 minutes to warm up before doing as many stretches as I could think of (this was the advice of my sister-in-law), then ran another 10 minutes and did even more stretches, and through it all, my shins were fine! It was as if they wanted to be out running! Crazy legs! Of course they ended up hurting again later, then getting better again, and today the pain is excruciating, but I have this to say - Man, this cCity is beautiful! Last night was an absolutely gorgeous evening - people were out in droves, roller-blading, walking dogs, running, and watching the sunset and all along the seawall (well, as far as I could get before having to turn back - WHY is the seawall *still* closed?) I was just overwhelmed with gorgeousness. It didn't make my shin stop hurting, but it did occur to me on several occasions that I would have missed it all had I stayed in on the couch.