This my 5th time running this 5K race. My times have been:  32:49, 31:15: 29:10 and 29:49.

But really, who cares?  It is such an emotional race.  Everyone there knows someone who has had or died from breast cancer.  Many are survivors themselves.

I feel foolish worrying about my foot.  Tendonitis is not life threatening.  I am fortunate to be healthy.

The weather was pretty dreary when I left my house.  Being on a team, I had to wear the team heavy cotton tee shirt (ugh!).

I parked my car at work (to avoid the crowds) and walked the mile to where the race began.  After resting my foot since Tuesday, it felt pretty good – not 100% but hopefully it would not get worse.

But as I walked, my foot started to hurt…not a good sign.  It also got warmer and even the sun was peeking out.

I got there early to meet my friend, MaryPat and her niece Courtney.

We then headed out to the start. I moved to the front (out from under the overpass) trying to get a signal on my Garmin. It took a long time and finally got one seconds before the race started.

I have run this same course 9x. It starts uphill and ends downhill with many inclines around and through the park.

I felt uncomfortable from the start.  I was hot.  My foot was hurting.  But I just kept going.

In fact, I didn’t stop at all.  Not even for water.  This is the first 5k since returning from my ankle injury that I didn’t stop.

I wanted to.  My ankle hurt.  My good foot hurt more.  I saw a friend that I used to work with who has CF and is in and out of the hospital.  She cheered me on in the park twice.  So I kept running.  I ran for her in hope that she will find a match for a lung transplant.

Finally I saw the finish line and I had little left.  I crossed around 30:50 or so.  Not bad considering…

I waited for my friends to cross.  I didn’t get their pics but got one of someone else from my team.

This is the first race that I have run injured.  It is the first race that I regret running.  After the race, I could barely walk and I had to limp over a mile to my car…ugh!  (The only good thing was that it didn’t start raining until I got to my car.)

Ice and ibuprofen have helped and I feel better but am still bummed about being injured!!!

Happy Running! Good luck to all those racing this weekend!  Anyone else stupidly run a race while injured?