TIR 2012, Maternity Belts, and Such

This year's Texas Independence Relay (TIR) came and went without a hitch. God blessed us with healthy runners and wildflowers galore. God also blessed me with the wisdom and foresight to bow out of the race this year... as a runner. BUT, I still volunteered to drive one of the race vans and was put in charge of six runners. I lived vicariously through them as they began and finished each leg.

Road to Recovery
With the TIR no longer a focus, I've been dishing out some serious cash for physical therapy lately, and it has put me on this path. It's the devil's backbone of pathways but still, the finish line is a completed marathon and I feel that since I have a PT looking after me, as long as I do everything she says, I'm well on my way. I mean, my butt isn't even sore anymore! heh...

All right now Shelly, you need to buy a maternity belt and wear it for a week. Let's see how you do.

Ok. Oh wait. What?

In a more delicate fashion, my PT gave me this advice last week as a way to help support my Sacroiliac (SI) joint while walking and thus, allowing me to finally run again. I looked around HEB, Walgreens, but come to find out, they only sell those belts at maternity stores.

So I go, there, to a store of this sort. I walk in and immediately, I feel surrounded by pregnant women and no available store clerks. I get a little scared by this. For one, I am waaay out of my element, and two, being surrounded by items pertaining to motherhood creates mixed emotions. I may have told the store clerks that it was for a sports injury about a half dozen times. And in a maternity store, that is the ONLY PLACE where you can safely ask someone if she's pregnant!! I mean, they asked me a few times and I wasn't offended at all. It's their job to ask. They even asked me if I was there for the Birthing Class (why all the Buddha bellies were there), and I politely replied, "You #*@*&!"

The belt works, though. It really does a wonder on me. My joint occasionally aches without it, but with it, I can jog. What a different a month of stretching and therapy can do!! When I started all this, I couldn't walk correctly on account of the.... glute issue. I may still walk slightly crooked, but I'm slowly building those muscles through daily stretches and weekly sessions.