I got up Sunday morning ready to run. That is a lie. I was not ready, but I knew I had to, and kept telling myself, “It’s only 14 miles.” Right. That said, I started off slow and tapered off. lol But seriously, I was ok from about mile 3 to mile 8. I wasn’t enjoying it, but I felt confident I could finish. Then I hit mile 9.

Mile 9 was about where my lower back really started hurting. When I got to my last turnaround, I stopped briefly and dropped to one knee to see if that eased the pain. It did, and I took back off. The pain came back and about a quarter mile later (when I got back to a shady spot), I laid down on the side of the road on my back and pulled my knees up to stretch out. I made it about 3/4 of a mile and then laid down in the church driveway. Another half mile later, there I was in the road again and just a little over a quarter mile from the house. At this point, I was thinking about how I was going to get in the last 3 miles. But about the time I got to my driveway, I said “Screw the full. I’m doing the half instead.”

So there it is. I feel pretty confident that I can do the half because I’ve done halves before. I’m sure the back pain is my body telling me it’s time to buy new shoes. They are almost a year old. But I can’t afford a $120 pair of shoes right now and don’t want to break in new shoes right before a race.

Therefore, the half it is.