Dragons left me sore and stiff, but I still ran

I spent Saturday morning on the Fox River at practice for the upcoming Dragon boat races.

The races are part of a community festival held in conjunction with the university in town. And each year, my office puts together a team. And a week or two before the event, we head down to the river for our one and only practice session with hardcore Dragon boat paddlers from the Racine area.

You know, they show you how to paddle and teach you the command. You figure out where your seat is in the boat and what purpose you'll serve. Then they tell you to throw on a life jacket, jump in the boat and you paddle for the next hour.

And use muscles that I apparently don't use the rest of the year.

Because when I woke up this morning. Holy cow. I could barely sit up in bed. So the thought of lacing up the running shoes and setting out for the last long-ish run before next weekend's Fox Cities Half Marathon? Yeah, that wasn't happening.

So I lounged in bed a bit. Felt guilty. And finally got up (slowly) and got ready to go for a run. Given the fact that it hurt to bend over and tie my shoes and every step I took was painful in the toosh (what can I say, those tiny little benches in the boat? Not so comfortable), I didn't have high hopes for the run.

I headed out the door with plans just to sneak in two miles and do something a little longer later in the week, when I wasn't feeling like I was 90 years old. But after a block or two I actually started to feel pretty decent. I actually ended up doing 4.2 miles and probably could have done the 6ish I wanted to do pre-Dragon boat practice, but I needed time to get home and shower before an afternoon's worth of NFL games kicked off at noon.

I'm still hoping to sneak in that 6 mile run later this week, maybe Tuesday, just as one last longer run before the half marathon on Tuesday. And I'm crossing my fingers that when I wake up tomorrow morning, the soreness and stiffness in my back and shoulder are gone, because hobbling around like I'm 90? Kind of bites.