This past Sunday was the Hospital Let’s Run With It Walk/Run.  Earlier this summer I had ran my first 5km in the Patrick 4 Life run at a time of 30:46. I was hoping to beat my time and had been training for the past two and a half months.  A couple weeks before the run I developed a rather painful case of shin splints.  I stopped running in the hopes that I’d be healed in time for the run.  I still had some pain mostly in my right leg going into the race on Sunday, but crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.  I started out great.  I felt I was making good time.  Unfortunately, just before the halfway point my leg started to bother me.  Just after the turn around point I had to start walking as my leg was giving out on me.  I was bummed.  After all that training, I couldn’t imagine not running across the finish line.  After a couple minutes I attempted to run again, but only managed to run for about a minute before I had to give up and start walking again.  After about another minute of walking I got angry.  How dare my body let me down like this after all that training.  Grrrrrr.  I said “to heck with the leg” and started running again, albeit, at a much slower pace.  That’s when Van Halen’s “Don’t Tell Me” came on my mp3 player.  I had carefully put together a batch of up tempo tunes that ran 30 minutes in length.  Van Halen was the song I was supposed to cross the line to and I realized that I was too far away for that now to be a possibility.  The song still managed to fire me up though and I said to myself…”there is no way I’m going to start walking again, I will run across that finish line”.  As I came into Lee Park Mitch was standing alongside the track to cheer me on which buoyed me even more.  As My Hero by The Foo Fighter’s blasted across my headphones I continued my weary trod.  I couldn’t sprint to the finish line like I had hoped to, but considering how much pain I was in, it’s a miracle I finished at all, and still at a respectable 34:00, or thereabouts.  Now, to the Stupid Pride part and title of this blog.  Since Sunday I have been hobbling around on my one good leg in so much pain I had to stock up on Robaxacet and A5-35.  I’m feeling a little bit better today, but I’m starting to think that I have to stop being so stubborn in the future.  And maybe I should realize I’m 38…not 28.  I just don’t seem to spring back like I used.