I signed up for a 5k that’s tomorrow morning in the beginning of August because I was having a bad week.

I also re-downloaded Hinge onto my phone, and that’s a story for another time.

I knew I wanted to keep running after the race I did in July and wasn’t sure if I would have the motivation to keep doing it if I didn’t have an end goal or race. This one is in the town over from me and much lower key than the one in Newport.

I kept my regular running routine up but was met by horrible August weather in New England. There were a few weeks when it was 90+ degrees, humid, and thunderstorms whenever possible. Like the sky would just open up. It was too unpredictable for me to run outside without ending up like the llama in The Emperor’s New Groove.

Then I was sidelined for a week and a half because of my ankle, and once that was better, I got a spasm in my back near my shoulder blade that kept me off the road for a few days.

This week I ran 3.1 miles Sunday night—an absolute miracle ran in 36:42—and just over a mile and a half Tuesday. I planned to run last night but got caught up doing things I had been putting off on my to-do list.

Also! Back in this post, I asked for advice about wireless headphones and armbands/running belts. Thanks to everyone who left suggestions!

I purchased a pair of Powerbeats3 in gray and a running armband. The first time running with the headphones and armband was so freeing. It felt good to not have to hold my phone while running. The sound quality was good in the headphones and the strap in the back didn’t flap around as much as I thought it would.

But they didn’t seem to hold their 12-hour charge? (I assumed the 12-hour charge meant 12 hours of use?) The time I actually used them for running totaled less than two hours and they died during my run on Tuesday. I charged them that night. Does anyone else have that problem with the Powerbeats3?

I didn’t have any issues with the armband falling down and worked when I wore a long sleeve shirt and a tank top (so sleeve vs. no sleeve). I wear it on my left arm so that I can unlock it with my fingerprint on my right hand.

According to my miles chart—yes, I’ve been keeping track of my miles in a Google spreadsheet, a post about that coming the end of this month—I ran less miles to train for this run. I ran 68 miles over four months to train for Newport and ran just over 30 miles in two months for this one. And I feel like I’m blaming my injuries and the weather, but sometimes there’s only so much you can do.

I ran so much for the first one because I didn’t think my body could run 3.1 miles. Now that I know I can and won’t die, I don’t feel as nervous for tomorrow. But I know I have to train/keep running in order to get better. That being said, I know I can’t get mad at myself if I’m a few minutes off of my Newport time. All that matter is that I finish. Plus we got t-shirts with this race.

The race tomorrow is much smaller than the other one, and Kristen—my co-worker who ran with me last time and supports me by running these races with me—and I will get breakfast after since the race is at 8:00 a.m.

I’ll have a recap post up on Monday so check back to see if I’ve made it without any injuries.