I received entry into the America Runs Virtual 5K as a part of being a BibRave Pro. Check out BibRave.com to read and write race reviews. 

On June 11th, I had a lot of knee surgery. If you’re a frequent reader of my blog, then you’ve heard me go on about it for the last 3 months since. If you are new, or somehow missed seeing me post about what exactly they did, you can catch up here: http://box5183.temp.domains/~joshuany/runnerdgirl/2020/07/current-status-broken-but-not-beaten.html

Long story short: I’ve been a pretty unhappy camper about the whole thing. I went 11 full weeks without running pretty much a single step. The first 4 weeks I couldn’t even walk. 

But all the while during the waiting, I held tight to the original number that the surgeon had given me. 12 weeks. I would have to go 12 weeks without running. I knew when I was finally able to get back on the road, I wanted to celebrate with a race. But yeah, ummm… 2020 yo. No races.

Enter the America Runs Virtual 5K. The race dates were between August 1st and September 30th, the perfect time frame as my 12th week surgery anniversary was September 3rd. The SWAG was crazy sweet, consisting of a Finisher Medal, Ultra-soft T-Shirt, Distressed Trucker Hat, and Insulated Stainless Steel Water Bottle. And also, the America Runs Virtual 5K partnered up with the Gannett Foundation to donate to local COVID-19 recovery funds with a goal raising $1 Million in donations. The Gannett Foundation will disperse 100% of all money raised and donated to COVID-19 recovery state funds. It sounded perfect across the board, so I decided to make it my official Comeback Race!

I had spoken to my PT and the surgeon both on when to expect to get to run again. Nearish the end of August, both were pretty much saying the same thing, at my PT session the first week of Sept, I would give running a go. It was cutting it close, but I figured as long as I was officially cleared to run, I could struggle through a 5K. 

Lo and behold, on August 25th, I was surprised when my PT told me to get on the treadmill to see how a running attempt felt. Turns out, not great. But after adjusting a bit and going outside where I am much less awkward, I was given the green light to go ahead and start easing back into running. This gave me another week to work my way up to a 5K by the official 12-week post-surgery date. And boy did I need it. (Check out my previous blog post about staring running again here: http://box5183.temp.domains/~joshuany/runnerdgirl/2020/09/itll-come-back.html).

Feeling super meh about my first attempts to run

So after a few test runs where frankly, I sucked and couldn’t keep a solid pace nor distance, all I really wanted to do was to run the 5K without stopping. Whatever the pace I hit, would be what it was, but I was determined to not stop. 

September 3rd came and I was ready as I was going to be. I laid out all of my gear the night before like a proper race and psyched myself up mentally. 

These are a few of my favorite things… 

I set out for my 5K, determined. Yes, I was slow, but I was steady. I had a familiar route around my immediate neighborhood that was mostly flat. And you know what, I did it. I ran my complete 5K with no stopping. And a bit more importantly, I ran it with no pain. I mean at least in my knee. Which I kept reminding myself was a pretty big accomplishment for being 12 weeks out of pretty major knee surgery. I’m glad that I was able to celebrate this milestone with an awesome race. When my packet with my bling and SWAG arrive, I will forever have a memento of the time I ran a 5K 12 weeks post-surgery. And the race experience itself was great for a Virtual, they sent lots of messages and kept runners excited about the event throughout. 

And while I have already done my race, if you are interested in running the America Runs Virtual 5K also to take advantage of the awesome SWAG, to donate to local Covid 19 charities and/or to celebrate your own running milestone, you have until the end of September to do so. Register here – https://americaruns.com/

And stay tuned. I cannot wait to show you my SWAG. I got a notification yesterday that it is on it’s way to me!