Painful Decisions

I've wanted to run the NYC Half since 2007. I was interning in the city, and one of my new friends from the summer spent June and July training for the big race in August (while the rest of us drank ourselves silly and did other stupid intern things). We all went to watch him, and even though we never spotted him during the race (oh what did we do before connected smart phones?!), it was a huge rush to watch the thousands of other runners flood through the typically congested Times Square. I thought it was magical and just about the coolest thing I'd ever seen in New York.

So when I moved to New York in 2009, I started trying and trying and trying and trying to get into the half (and the full). No such luck until this year,when I somehow managed to get into both races. Over the moon with excitement, I threw myself into training last summer for my first marathon and never looked back.

I'm arguably in the best shape of my life right now, I'm running faster than ever before, and I and am completely in love with the sport.

But right now, today, I can't walk. Whatever I did to my groin during Sunday's run is not going away easily. It hurts to walk, it hurts to sneeze, it hurts to put on pants. It HURTS. And yes, I can be a bit of a drama queen, but up until today, I was 100% positive it would be 100% better by today. I even marked 3 days of 'injury' on calendar for Monday-Wednesday only. Well, 3 days have come and gone, and now it's time to face the facts.

Yes, it's a Chick-Fil-A calendar. The irony is not lost on me.

There is no way I can run the 1/2 on Sunday. If it hurts to walk, it's going to hurt to run. And it's going to hurt real bad for 13.1 miles. And not just the 13.1 miles on Sunday, for every mile after that for awhile if I ignore it. A painful, painful decision that has no silver lining, other than the fact that I'm being a responsible adult and my MAIN goal this year is to finally run the NYC Marathon. I would hate myself if this little injury turned into something that would put me out of commission for November. I'll probably have to wait another 4 or 5 years to get into the NYC Half again, but it will be even sweeter when I finally get to run.

Now it's time to drown my sorrows with more ice and more Downton Abbey. :(