Weekend Wrap-Up: The Race

Recently, I have been talking about the CRAZINESS that has just struck the Rodriguez household. TRAVEL SEASON! I'm so proud of the way everyone has been handling the extra stress of my work schedule. My family is PHENOMENAL!

Grace's school and our church parish hosted their annual Homecoming Carnival this weekend. Attending these festivities has been a long standing tradition in our family. Since the avant of the Rodriguez's, Carnival activities have been the forerunner to any other plans that try to creep their way into the weekend. I am insistent on attending both days because it is one of the only times we contribute to our parish outside of the weekly collection. (I know we really should give more but come on we've got three kids. And we pay tuition).

Plus there is cheap beer! (More on the carnival to come!)

This year the carnival fell of the same weekend as my highschool's homecoming. Typically, I don't even consider going to any event sponsored by my highschool. I lovelovelove my alma mater, and I'm positive both Grace and Eva will attend the same school as long as we live in the state. However, highschool was such an awkward time. Up until recently, I had no desire to ever see anyone with whom I had graduated. This year though, the school was sponsoring a 1-mile fun run/walk and a 3-mile race. I was stoked about competing in the 3-mile and signed up for it as soon as I heard. I had been running for the past few months in preparation for a 9-mile race my sister is coordinating and in which I wanted to participate. I ran both track and cross-country in highschool, so running didn't scare me at all. I figured I'd get back into shape in a couple weeks max. That's how I always did it back then.

Some where in that logic I failed to realize that I have since given birth to THREE children and the only running I've done recently is chasing after the kids. My training started out slower than I had anticipated, but I wasn't going to give up. It had only been TEN years since the last time I ran more than two miles. I'd get back to my old race physique. It might just take a month instead of two weeks, but it would happen. That was until one day in mid August. As I was jogging/walking on a four-mile journey, my knee snapped. I was two miles from home and figured I just needed to walk it off. Well, the walking didn't help. I decided that I could run it out. SMART. After about half a block of attempting to run away from the pain, I found myself sitting in someone's yard trying to fight back tears. The pain was not going away. I hobbled the rest of the way home. I could barely move for the next few days.

After consulting my sisters and searching the internet, I self-diagnosed tendonitis in my knees. The best way to treat it is through strength building exercises and to stop running until the muscles are built back up to support the knee.

I didn't want to back out of the race, so Grace and I decided we would compete in the 1-mile fun run/walk. Grace did remarkably well for a six year old. She ran a little over a half mile and briskly walked the rest. We had a romping good time. I think I may have found myself a little running partner. We'll bond and we'll get buff. Okay, maybe I'm a little optimistic. But that girl has determination and skillz. Pretty soon I'll be trying to catch up with her.