Happy (painfree) dance!

It's been a damn long 2 weeks, turns out I'm really grumpy, bitchy, and mean when I can't run.. and I eat a lot too. Today was the 4th race in the Rock Creek series out at Lake Perry, originally I had planned to do the 50K, but due to the injury, I did the half marathon instead. I'm actually kind of proud of myself for being smart and not going back gangbusters. I hadn't run a single step in 2 weeks but Friday I was finally totally painfree and felt like I had all my muscle strength back so I figured I'd at least give the race a go. I was so not ready for the race, I spent the morning racing around the house frantically trying to find my garmin, my shoes, dig out a long sleeve shirt to run in, and wondering where the heck I put my bladder (for my Nathan pack, not MY bladder). Obviously I hadn't put my running bag back together after Heartland. After waking my husband up accidentally by dropping a box on the floor, I was ready to go (sorry honey!)
I swung though Lawrence and picked up Christy "Mountain Mud Babe", she had signed up to do the 50K, but had been having knee problems again (cortisone shot stopped working), so she was going to drop down to the half and we were labeling ourselves "the injured contingent" and figured we'd run/walk/hobble together. I kept telling myself that if the leg hurt AT ALL, I was going to drop out and take more time off, and I made Christy promise to hit me upside the head if I tried to run through pain. We got to Lake Perry, got checked in and spent plenty of time socializing with folks (one of the best parts of a race!). Before long we were off and as I took my first few tentative steps, my joy grew as there was not a twinge from the quad. We took it very easy and did a lot of walking and just enjoyed the sunny morning playing in the woods with others. It was a gorgeous cool fall morning, with the leaves turning beautiful colors and dropping off the trees. As usual there was plenty of back and forth chatting and introductions with other runners and an opportunity to put faces to names.
My leg continued to feel perfect, but I could definitely feel the 2 weeks of inactivity in other muscles, so we slowed down and chatted, had fun & took pictures. At one point we picked up Laurie "Nerdo Mud Babe" on the trail, she had been running the 50K but her hip had blown up on her and she was noticeably limping, so we added her to our injured contingent and carried on. We finished in some ridiculously slow time, but didn't really care since we had just had a really good time out there! I pulled on a sweatshirt, grabbed a Lara Bar and settled in to watch the 50K finishers.
Trail Nerd Caleb was first and then we had a bit of a wait till the next finisher so we spent it gossiping and drinking really wretched beer. It was nice to get a chance to talk with some of the Topeka trailrunners.. something that we really don't get much of a chance to do! The Trail Nerds kicked some butt and did some serious damage to the top 10.. and our Mud babes rocked the top spots too!! Sophia took 1st female and Debbie (crew member extraordinaire) took 3rd. Debbie was so worried about finishing, but she's been training like a fiend and finished looking fast and fresh. Afterwards she admitted that she could have run another 20 miles!! She rocks! I had to take off before all the runners were done, since I was already late for work, but I left with a light heart and an even lighter step 'cuz I am a runner again!!