I had a really rough night on Friday night.
Wouldn't wish it on anyone.
Massive digestive distress.
Not fun. At all.
I had to take it easy on Saturday.
So I skipped parkrun.
I wanted to ease out of bed slowly.
It was the first time in many, many months that I had missed sunrise.
But it was what my body needed.
Slow. Gentle. Easy.
I took the whole day easy.
I drank gently.
I ate slowly.
I moved less.
By Saturday night I no longer felt nauseous.
And the pain levels had dropped significantly.
I slept better that night than I had in months.
(No doubt the sleep deprivation from the night before helped!)
When I woke this morning my belly felt a little tender but not bad.
I figured the company of a run in the bush would do me good.
I also figured it it was too hard for me to keep up I could bail at any point.
At 5:40 am I was ready to run.
Hands running gently over my belly as I started walking to the meeting point.
When Brad caught up I tried a slowish jog on the flat.
We arrived on time to meet the others.
They were happy to see us.
I was happy to see them too.
And for 6.66km I oscillated between cruising on the flats, walking fast (ish!) up the hills, trying to make up time on the downhills, and letting them do extra on the out-and-backs while I walked at snail's pace to recover.
There was no shaming.
There was no criticising.
There was no problem.
I just did what my body could do and as I look at the stats on hindsight, I think I did pretty bloody well.
Screenshots courtesy of Garmin Connect. Cadence shows how much I walked. Heart rate shows that I did manage to listen to my body really well. And the fact that I managed an hour, with friends, getting up and down hills, on trails is a massive win.
Here's to more wins.