Race and Racing Heart

This last spring my sister challenged me to run a half marathon with her in the fall.  It was 19 weeks away at the time, and I began a couch to half marathon program that left little wiggle room.  I started training and things went well enough at first, but then I had a couple of days when because of the baby waking early (I was still nursing) or something or other the other kids needed in the middle of the night, I wasn't able to get out before the heat of the day kicked in.  I was convinced it was a conspiracy of my family to keep me from running since things only seemed to happen on training days.

My training really fell off the mark, so I settled for the idea that I would run the 10k instead of half.  I kept training as much as I could, but I admittedly lost steam. 

I also ran into an issue when I trained in strong heat and humidity.  My heart would do a weird tap dance and it would cause my breath to be taken away.

I went to my primary care , and she referred me to a cardiologist.  I had several heart tests done and even wore a Holter vest for 24 hours.  Nothing turned up and I proceeded to get ready for my race.  Of course the day after I turned in the monitor was when my heart did its tap dance.

I happened to mention the heart/breath thing to my allergist and he told me he thought it sounded like exercise-induced bronchial spasms.  He prescribed me an inhaler to try ten minutes before my runs to see if it would make a difference.  It seemed to help.

As much as I had done, I was unprepared.  I hadn't trained much with hills, and the course had been changed last minute to a hillier one.  I finished it though.  It was one of the hardest things I've ever done.  I think I pulled something in my legs, since I feel weak even claiming stairs at this point.  My awesome sister who has run half marathons, stayed with me the whole time.  She had a pouch in the back of her shirt where we kept my inhaler.  It was a good thing we kept it.  I had an asthma attack in the middle of the race and needed it.  The hills made it harder than I thought it would, but I finished!  Me the girl who had to pretend she was running for her life to get a decent grade in gym (let me dance for hours instead any day), finished a 10k race!  

Still recovering for the race, but I'm really happy I did it.  A couple of years ago I didn't know if I could run three miles.  Now I've run a six mile race.  My sister wants us to run the Disney Princess Half Marathon in a year or two.  Thankfully I know Orlando, and it's pretty darn flat.  New Goal to look forward to!