On Thursday night, my physiotherapist cleared me to start walking and cycling. “Start slowly,” he cautioned, “to see how you feel. If you’re feeling good, add a bit more.” This week’s goal, then, has been to gently wake up the muscles. 
I spent Friday and Saturday getting use to being on two feet again and, with my new ankle brace, I expected walking to be easy. It hasn’t. On my first day out, I made it about 100 metres down the street when I told myself that walking was still a bad idea. I dragged my heels home – deflated.
The next afternoon, I tried again. This time I wore my running shoes and, while that sounds like the obvious choice, it really wasn’t. My ankle brace takes up a lot of space in my shoe, making it uncomfortable, and I feel like it is raising my leg so that my left hip sits slightly higher than my right. 
But after strolling for 3 kilometres around the neighbourhood, I decided that it was okay – not great, but okay. I was just going to have to get use to wearing it for a while if I want to start being a bit more active again.
Yesterday, I walked twice – both times longer than the day before and both leaving me with more confidence. My total distance for the day was almost 7 kilometres. I woke up this morning feeling good, the sun came out and I made my decision. Today was the day to do the Around the Bay 5K – virtually.
I registered for this race at the beginning of March, not because I wanted to do a virtual race but because I felt I needed to support the event. The Around the Bay races have a special spot in my heart as that’s where I met my husband, Dave. 
We ran the 30K event (years ago when that was the only event) and, this year, our 30th year together, we wanted to run the 30K again. When the in-person race was cancelled, I decided to register for the 5K distance instead but, as my bad luck would have it, I was sidelined shortly after. However, now that I am starting to get my body moving again, the shorter distance is perfect for me – as long as I am walking it.
When the sun came out this afternoon, I headed out the door. I walked my favorite 5K route, took a few pictures along the way and finished with a sense of accomplishment. While I felt some tightness along the lateral ligaments, there wasn’t any pain similar to what I was feeling weeks ago. If I feel fine tomorrow, I’ll add some cycling on my trainer to my regime.
This is the first of a few virtual races that I had planned to run this spring. At this point, I am fairly certain that I will not be running but I will happily walk all of them. I’m moving again and it feels so good.
