It was a cake walk

Bob

So, I did my first 5k since the marathon and since the knee thing.  It was on New Year's Eve day.  The Peepsfest.  It is one of my favorite events.  I like the time of year.  I like the mascots that are involved and I enjoy the people.  The course is nice as well.  A bit hilly, but not too bad.  Since I have taken most of the month of December off and my running in general has not been good since October, I really had no expectations.  My one expectation was that it would not be good.  I would run it to have fun and see where I stand, running wise.  Test the knee.  What added to the intrigue is the amount of food I have consumed in the last few months, and particularly, the last few weeks.  I have gained 13 pounds since the marathon.  This is a feat in itself, because even though I haven't been running much, I have been doing other things.  Active job, lifting and my 500 pushup/day challenge.  I completed that, by the way.  It was hard doing all the pushups but it kept me very busy for the month.  I like pushups, but I found doing them every day to be somewhat tedious.  Hard too, because I could use some rest, but I said I was going to do them, so I did.  Somedays I would slack off a bit and that would lead to a couple days where I did 1000, a bunch of days where I had to do do over 600 and the last day I had to do 806. I had to average 500/day and finish with 15,500.  I was doing pushups in my shop, in my house, at a customer's house, in my parent's bathroom on Christmas Eve and other places.  I was like the Forrest Gump of pushups.  Anyway, even with that going on, I still gained weight.  Which means I was consuming huge amounts of food.  I was unstoppable.  I was carving the ham on Christmas Eve while shoving slabs in my mouth.  One for me, one for the other people.  My whole family was at my parent's house a few days after Christmas and they wanted me to pick up fried chicken for everyone.  That was a lot of chicken.  My son, Ethan, went with me and we were waiting for the 54 piece meal with sides when I said to him, "I don't know if I can make the drive home without eating some delicious chicken."  He agreed, so we ordered a 5 piece meal with fries so we could make the long, 15 minute ride back to my parent's home.  We were in greasy steering wheel, throwing bones out the window, heaven.  The thing about good fried chicken is you don't have to work to hard to chew and swallow.  The grease makes it slide right down.  I washed the chicken down with cake later.  Even with my iron stomach, I gave myself heartburn.  My body felt like it was totally filled with food.  I tried to run a few times last week and I was slow and bloated.  I felt like what an anaconda must feel like when it swallows a whole goat.  I needed to lie down for a few days to digest everything, but I attempted to run.  I felt like horking.  Now, for the Peepsfest.  I came there, bloated, pale, gimpy and not even sure I could finish.  Far cry from the guy who ran the marathon a little over two months ago.  My friends wanted to run with me, but I told them I am going to be running, walking, puking and crying.  I wanted to be alone in my misery.  I did everything wrong for this 5k.  I wore about 5 layers because I thought I would be cold.  I hate overdressing and it wasn't long before I was way too hot.  I would run a bit, walk and then sprint a bit.  About halfway through, I was too hot.  I unpinned my number, took off my sweatshirt and tried to re-pin it on my shirt while I was walking.  I can barely pin my number on when I am standing still.  Then I tried to wrap my sweatshirt around my waist.  That was a chore.  My ipod kept coming unclipped from my waistline and the earbuds kept falling out.  I was a bloody mess.  At that point I said to myself that if I don't pick it up, I'm going to be last.  A 12 year old girl saw me walking and told me I was going to make it.  To keep going.  I think what she saw was an old and pathetic guy with a sweatshirt wrapped around his knees, unable to find his ears to listen to his ipod, stumbling down the road.  With nice running shoes.  I finally crossed the finish line and it was over.  My friends told me they thought I died.  They didn't look for me, but they were concerned.

In conclusion, the point of all this is that I realized where I was at and what I needed to do.  For the most part, my knee felt okay.  I felt heavy, plodding and overfed.  As long as my knee is okay, I can fix the rest.  I think I needed to feel that bad to start building back up.  I enjoy being strong and somewhat fast too much to keep up this self sabotage.  I look at the picture above and see a somewhat depressed, chubby and out of shape guy.  I don't look so good either.  The Peep is my brother.  We look a bit alike, and although he cannot talk, we bonded that day.  I am going to use his silent, avian energy to catapult to fitness again.  I won't let this happen to me again.  As long as I can move, I can be healthy.  I'm looking forward to the new year.