Jennifer's Exercise... For the Year...

I don't work out much.  I think about it several times a week (as all the boys in my pod at work go to the gym on their lunch breaks, and another friend talks about her coed basketball and soccer teams, and other people are running marathons....)  But I don't actually work out much.  I walk Cody three times a day.  That counts for something.  Right?

However, I did used to be more active.  And, sometimes, I can commit to one-off exercises.  Like 5ks.  Three miles.  Anyone could practically do that in their sleep.  I did it yesterday.

In 2006, E and I (and some other people?  We couldn't remember.) ran in a St. Partick's Day race - the Ras na hEireann - in Davis Square.  (Don't ask me to pronounce that.  No idea.)  This year, she was doing it again.  I procrastinated on signing up for it, but, as luck would have it, the girl E was running with couldn't do it, so I swooped in on her spot (which came with a free t-shirt, thank goodness.)  (You all should know that I run races for the t-shirts.)

I searched online for a bit, in an attempt to find pictures of people at this race.  Everyone (except me) wore green.  One in five people wore bobbly shamrocks on a headband:

There was a guy in a speedo (and a bow tie.)  There was a guy juggling while he ran.  There was a dad pushing a double stroller (Ironman BOB, woot) that passed me in the final quarter mile.  There was a person dressed in a huge bear costume.  Basically, the people-watching was fabulous.

And, after several false starts - we'd start running, then come to a halt as the people in front of us stopped - the race itself went pretty well.  Again, just a 5k, but I didn't feel like dying at any point...

...Until this morning.  Post race yesterday, I stayed pretty active - did laundry, played with Code, walked to M3's for dinner.  I went to bed, woke up a little sore.  Walked Code, got ready, went to work.  Here comes the killer - I sat for three hours.  At this point, I wanted to take my usual 10:30 break, go to the bathroom, rescue my water bottle from the freezer.

OUCH.  I almost turned around and reevaluated having to leave my desk, walking hurt so much.  What was I expecting, though?  I hadn't run more than a mile since the fall...  And, per usual, I didn't really stretch...

Eventually, I got over myself and waddled around the office, realizing that moving helped things.  Boring ending, I know.