No Pain, No Gain

As I mentally prepare to run a 10 miler race a mere two weekends after my last half marathon, I got to thinking about random stuff. I've recently added a few runner's blogs to my blog reader and man are they an inspiration (some of them do a "warm up run" of 10 miles before a 15K (8 miles)...are they nutso?!?!) and I was looking at their finishing pictures. I really wish I was one of those runners who finished a race and looked fantastic, not a hair out of place. Well, that just ISN'T ME.

I decided to look up my pictures from my race to get a good chuckle.

Me and my dad. You can tell he is really hurting in this picture. About a month ago a horse stepped on his foot and I think he's had a broken toe that he hasn't gotten checked out.

I'm happy to report that I didn't immediately finish the race and have to fight the urge to vomit. I guess that's just because I see the finish line up ahead and then push myself really really hard at the end to finish. But this time, I don't know what it was, I just felt GOOD. Its not like I trained really hard for this race or anything. I was talking to my friend Crystal after the race about the overwhelming feeling you get when you finish a big race. This was her first half marathon (yay Crystal!) and I confessed to her that I always get the feeling that I'm about to cry when I cross the finish line. I don't actually cry because I don't want to be "THAT" blubbering idiot. But I bet other runners reading this totally get it. Either because you've pushed yourself to PR or just pushed yourself to finish, burning muscles, tight chest, and everything hurts but you know you finished something at one point you didn't think you could do, whether it was when you signed up or sometime during the race. For me, its always this wave of emotions, like my cup has 'fillith over and there's no more room for emotions because of the pure exhaustion.

Does anyone else feel like that when they run or workout?