09/05/2025
Donut Dash 5k 🏃🏼♀️🍩 Just over 17 weeks post-total hip replacement, the second 5k I’ve run post-op, and third race I’ve finished on my new hip.
It was tough. Much tougher than the 5k I ran 2 weeks ago. The Virginia hills got the best of me and they weren’t even that big, but they put the Ohio trails my legs have grown used to to shame.
Mile 1 clocked in at 9:15, which was my first mistake. My second mistake was trying to maintain that pace as I climbed the first hill. My glutes quickly gave me a “No thank you, ma’am” 🙅🏼♀️🥴 signal and so I dialed things back… but evidently not nearly enough, as my watch logged a 9:39 for mile 2. By mile 3 I was really beginning to feel it and started to alternate between run-walk intervals — walking the uphills, coasting through the downhills, and running the flat stretches — finishing mile 3 at a 10:58.
While I finished feeling proud, I also felt a healthy dose of humility, a bit of defeat, and certainly sore.
Running and I are still figuring each other out. I have only run 3 times since my surgery. The first time was with C because I was hit with a serious case of FOMO and the other two times were in a race setting because I keep signing up for races hoping that it will help to shake this (irrational?) fear I have developed.
I was talking with my chiropractor about it this morning and I struggled to put my fear into words. It’s a messy mix of fear of re-injuring myself, coupled with a lack of confidence, sprinkled with anxiety, uncertainty, and negative self-talk.
So yes, while I have run a couple of times post-op, don’t let it fool you. I am not “back.” I have a long way to go, as much mentally as physically. But I am making progress in the right direction.
