If you saw my tweet on this earlier, you will know that the real animals are actually going to be in the zoo habitats and those wild animals are the crazy friends I’m going to run with. (Find me in the twitterverse  @TweetingSiobhan)

It’s the day before the Zoo run. I’m calling it a run because I’m not going in with the “race” mentality. I recently read the I’m A Runner article on Julie Bowen from Modern Family (you can read it HERE!)

Julie mentioned something that really stuck with me. She talked about how she use to constantly get injured and how she injured herself while running a half marathon. With my sprained tendons from the Toronto Half- I can relate. (You can read it HERE!) Here’s what Julie said that got me thinking:

Twenty miles into my training, I was just running perfectly happy on a nice long run and all of a sudden, my hip felt like someone stabbed me with a knife, and sure enough, I had torn my labrum. It’s the rotator cuff of your hip, and there is no fix for it except to stay off of it for six to eight weeks. I was on crutches, and I had to swim. It was a drag, and I didn’t like it. That’s when I had one kid under one and I couldn’t carry him. It stunk, and it scared me enough that I really do want to do a marathon, but I don’t know. Being injured is so awful. [Younger sister] Annie said to me, “Would you rather be someone who can casually run until they are 90, or someone who ran a marathon and could never run another step?” So I would rather be the person who can run until I am 90. I just wouldn’t want to do permanent damage. That’s not to say that I don’t run, but I don’t want to push it to a point where I can’t run and I get hurt.

I want to be that person who can will run until they are 90. I eased off my training so that my feet are back to 100% before I started to hit the pavement again. This is why I didn’t do my Midsummer Night’s Run 30K. (Read it HERE!) And I am so happy with my healing. It makes me really question if I am ready for the Scotiabank Half on October 16th. Originally my goal was to finish in 1:45 and obviously my summer training has not happened the way I planned out. My mileage is nowhere near where it should be to reach the 1:45 goal. And in all honesty, I don’t think my mileage has been high enough to finish the distance of 13.1 miles in 23 days. So, I remind myself, I want to run until I’m 90. 

I’m taking my running bff Shannon’s advice, “If you see a zebra, stop and take a picture with him!” 

I’m checking my competitive side at the gates (those who know me, know that isn’t always an easy task for me) and I will be putting some jungle pump up jams on my iPod and taking JTT’s words of wisdom, “Hakuna Matata” to heart:

What am I going to see along my way tomorrow?! Well, the ENTIRE zoo! Check out the map: