Knocking out the miles

Last weekend spring weather finally seemed to arrive in Atlanta, and it made knocking out the miles for Saturday's Knock Out Cancer 5K and Sunday's training run very pleasant.
I ran the Knock Out Cancer 5K with my friend Erin.

Me and Erin

The race was in Marietta, a suburb of Atlanta. The course was pretty hilly, and I had a lot of trouble because my low back had been really hurting since the day before the race. Despite that, I managed a smile as I came in to the finish line.

Nearing the finish

Following the race, I went to Big Peach Running Co., one of my favorite local running stores, and bought some energy gels for the next day's 9-mile training run and some BioFreeze. That stuff works!
I am happy to report I managed twice around Stone Mountain Sunday with my friend Jessica and my back felt fine. I am so relieved. All I thought was I just paid $120 to run the Country Music Half Marathon at the end of the month and how am I going to run it with the back pain?
Sunday's run was really beautiful. The weather was just perfect.

Stone Mountain lake

Jessica and I both had a good run and I feel much better about the half marathon coming up.

But one thing I noticed when I got home from a run two weeks ago was the heel on both running shoes had worn off. So, I bought a new pair of shoes, too!

My new Nike Air Pegasus 29

I was glad to get those 9 miles in on the new shoes. They feel great! And I'm ready to knock out a 5K and a 10 mile training run this weekend.