Hitting the Moon

The goal: 5k time trial to see how my ankle holds up
The thought: I was rather nervous of this "time trial", as it would test me to see whether I had it in me to continue forth with my goal of being in the relay or not this year.
The reality: my fitness gave out long before my ankle

My second official run back since end of September BI (Before Injury). I was a bit nervous as last week I could only handle a walk/run of about 3k total.
But I know that my ankle has been improving every day, so I was hoping to run a 5k non-stop. And (truth be told) I was hoping to run a 5k under 30min to prove that my fitness wasn't completely shot after so much time off my feet.
I started with a really long warm up that included stretching, strides (5x50m) and calf raises. Gone are the days when I could just start running and not worry about it! Oh, carefree days of injury-free bliss, how I miss you!
The first 2.5k I kept to a strict 6min pace. No sense pushing it, and if I needed to slow down, well...I'd slow down. The second 2.5k I decided to push it out as hard as I could, to see what happened and how I held out.
As mentioned, my fitness gave way long before my ankle. My treasured ankle hovered on the pain scale between 0/10 to 2/10 the entire run. My fitness levels were less accommodating, and it was all I could do to hold a 5.30min/km pace the second half of the run.
I ran to exactly 5k and pulled up with a time of 28.45min. I felt like I had just run a big race...my legs were absolutely shot at the end and I was sucking in air like a fish out of water. But I was not unhappy with my time.
I hope to get down to around 26min for 5k before the relay on November 22nd. So I have about 18 days to knock just under 3min off my time (that's about +30sec/km). Yikes! While this may be "to dream the impossible dream", a part of me also wants to misquote someone famous;
"Shoot for the stars. Even if you miss you'll land on the moon".

At least now I believe I'll actually be able to compete in the relay. It has been a stressful 5 weeks of wondering if I could still compete in my favourite race of the year...and wondering if I'd be brave enough to pull out if necessary.