Beach Running is Hard...Unless There Is A Cupcake

Good Tuesday Morning....

I am home on vacation in New York, spending the week with my family and today we are currently enjoying a snow storm. Well everyone else is really mad about it But I am sort of loving it!!! I haven't seen snow in well over 8 years and let alone having a snow day to top that off. Believe me I am not a fan of snow at all and I think thats why I like it right now, because I know I can leave it again lol.

And I am going to attempt a run in the snow and I will do some shoveling for my Poppy. Its kind of perfect!!

But since I am stuck in this cold weather, I wanted to post about the beach, take me back a bit to when it was warm and the only white stuff I was running through was the sand.


A local running company, called St. Pete Running Company last year put on a beach race, called Race  For The Cupcake. It is a 5k race right on St. Pete Beach and at the finish line you get a delicious cupcake. I mean it is a win win no matter what. Last year I signed up for it because it seemed fun and different and the entry fee was very inexpensive ( which I love!! when running a race). Instead of a tee-shirt like you receive at most races, this one, they gave a free visor. It was a great race last year and this year I knew if they were going to do it again, I was game.

So it came back around and I signed up. When I do these 5k races, I am just doing it for the bling and the experience and just to have a good old time. PR's are not that important to me at all. It would be nice to have a super stellar one, and when I don't put pressure on it then I am golden. 

So the week before the race, I had a long run and after that long run, my body was hurting. My whole left side of my knee, ankle and calf were so sore. I am not sure what I did wrong but it was painful. That continued to feel that way for most of the week, so when Saturday came around I wasn't expecting anything other than that.

The morning of the race, I taped up my leg with KT tape, I took some ibuprofen and headed to the race. It was a nice cooler morning and anything against the water is a bit cooler than normal anyway. I know beach running is hard. It is honestly a whole ball game for me. I live by the beach but I never run it, I prefer to sit back in my chair and just take it all in. And since I don't do much beach running, I forget how the sand is hard to move under my feet.

My feet were moving pretty good that morning for the first 1.5 miles. I forgot my GymBoss beeper and was just kind of winging it. My leg and knee really started hurting and I found myself hobbling a bit. I can't explain it but I felt like my legs weren't moving and I was almost skipping because it hurt so bad to put my leg down...



I tried to keep running but my knee was really holding me back, I couldn't get in the groove and it was a pain I had never felt before, so for the last mile, I just walked it to the end. I hate to do that. I hate that I had to walk the rest of it home. I honestly, felt defeated. I just didn't feel like myself. I felt so off. But then I was hearing the water crashing against the sand, I was watching other people doing the same thing and it was empowering.

I didn't care that I was walking, I did not feel any shame whats so ever. I was just trying to finish the race and get that medal and cupcake. And it was a beyond gorgeous day. Injury can do that to you though, it makes you feel like you are not yourself, when really you, you are beyond yourself, Running you become a whole new person. So yes I walked the rest of the race. I shuffled myself into the finish line, but I got it done!!



That medal was so cute too. And the cupcake was delicious. I ate only half because it was super sweet, but they also gave out a fruit cup which was a perfect balance between the two. The sand was so tough to run through and now I know I want to do more beach running to help switch things up and be better prepared. I will do this race again, just because I had a bad race, doesn't mean it wasn't perfectly put together.

And now this....







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