My First Race Back

April 24, 2022 marked my first day back to racing after my injury in November.  I completed all of my physical therapy and was cleared to start increasing my mileage.  I have been a bit hesitant to run too much, I don’t want to get injured again.  My breathing is not where it was pre-injury, not sure if it is from my bout with covid or just my asthma and my lungs need to get back in shape.  I have a race coming up in May, a 10K I signed up for thinking I would have been back to running long before now.  Second Capital running announced a new race for this year that would allow you to run through part of the animal section of the zoo. I figured this would be a good race to motivate me to get running again.  The morning of the race I was very nervous, it had been so long would I remember all my gear?  Did I eat enough?  Did I eat too much?  I arrived very early and so I grabbed my bib and waited.  I decided to do a warm up and ran a half mile with some dynamic stretching thrown in.  I went to look for friends while I waited for the race to start. A friend from church was doing the walk and I wanted to say hi!  I also knew my South Jersey running family would be there.  I found everyone and that helped settle my nerves.  I kept telling myself before the race that this race was just to see how I did running the distance, the goal was just to finish.  That went out the window as I started running and I ran the first mile in 9:15. I could not keep up that pace due to my lungs and slowed a bit with the second mile being 10:12.  The third mile had us in the zoo near the animals, there were walk zones in front of the bears and the wallabies, apparently it is not a good idea to run near these animals, even when they are caged. My overall time was 30:05!  I am very happy with my performance, it is much better than I thought I would do.  I am so thankful for my family and friends for their support and encouragement.  Who are the cheerleaders in your life that give you strength and courage to try new things and push your boundaries?  No need to mention names, but if you like give them a shout out in the comments!