As I said in the title — “Well There!”

I got the COVID-19 Moderna booster shot on Tuesday, took that afternoon and Wednesday off to let it do whatever it does (yeah, it sucked, but not as bad as the second shot). Then Thursday, I figured, would be a day to see how I felt before deciding on whether to run or not.

It was also rather chilly Thursday morning at 24 degrees; during Bennie’s first walk, I wasn’t into jumping right out the door to get the run in. So, I ended up waiting until around 10:00 AM and decided that if I was going to run, I might as well do it.

The temps had risen to 36 degrees with a light breeze that seemed to be in my face the entire run, but the sun was out, and I was feeling pretty good. In other words, a pretty nice November day in Maine.

Not knowing how the body would react, I started out pretty slow and noticed that chest pressure was back. It is the same one that plagued me after I was sick a few weeks back. It feels like it is more in the left lower lung, but it was also in the right lung area today. Furthermore, it was more a pressure than anything, but only noticeable when I took a deeper breath.

However, it didn’t seem to be getting any worse, so I kept going. I did run to the Town Office and surprisingly didn’t see a single hunter or vehicle parked on the side of the road, indicating that a hunter was in the woods down there. Although, I did see a couple of trucks go through that were out heater hunting. When they saw me running, one of them goosed it out there, spinning their tires.

Oh well, I guess they weren’t too happy with me. However, it wasn’t like the occupants could claim they couldn’t see me. I had a fluorescent orange running jacket, a fluorescent yellow skull cap, orange gloves, and blue tights. That is how I dress during the colder weather, whether it is hunting season or not — I want to be seen by drivers.

The chest seemed to clear itself after a couple of miles, and I ran a bit more relaxed without all those thoughts of the different things it could be. I am leaning in the direction more and more that I had a breakthrough case of COVID-19 a few weeks ago, and the body was fighting off the last effects of it last weekend. Then, when I got the shot, it somehow reactivated some symptoms again??? Who knows?

It doesn’t really matter either way, and when I got to the last mile, I felt good, so I picked the pace up to the marathon pace and nailed it. I didn’t feel like I was pushing hard to maintain the pace and picked it up pretty well over the last quarter without any problems.

All good things.

I did wear the Saucony Ride 13s again, and this time I changed the insole to the Curex RunPro, which seemed to help them. However, due to the curve of the toe box, I think that I would be better served to wear a size 9.0 than an 8.5 in the Ride series. It wasn’t bad, and I forgot about the shoes coming back up the hills, but it wasn’t the put them on and forgot them, which is what I want from my shoes for the entire run. Plus, when I picked up the pace, they seemed not to be as smooth running as they were at slower paces.

Overall, a nice run and one that I wasn’t really expecting to be that good so soon after getting the Moderna booster shot. Oh yeah, I did sign up for the Millinocket Half Marathon on December 4th. Last weekend’s 11.0 miler and how I responded after that made me think that I could do it. I am not planning to race the distance. I am planning to run it in under 2.0 hours.

Now, to get the leg to cooperate and the COVID-19 hospitalization numbers to decrease considerably before then. If everything comes together so that I can run the race, that would be nice.