The Road Back

This evening I put on my running shoes and went for a 25 minute walk.

It's a start.

Good News/Bad News

The good news is that I had a very successful Rockville Rotary Twilighter 8K, running a 11:02 pace despite thunder, lightning, and torrential downpour... and a severely sprained foot which I acquired in the first three minutes of the race.

I am a chowderhead for not dropping out of the race immediately at that moment, but I was so pumped with adrenalin, and then high on endorphins, that I didn't realize how badly hosed my foot was until I crossed the finish line and couldn't walk. And yes, it was the SAME foot that I've injured repeatedly.

Fortunately, Andrew was there and got me some ice to apply and gave me a lift to my car, which saved me from a lot of additional agony.

So now I'm back on crutches, and probably out of the running running (as it were) until Fall.

Damn it!

300 Miles

Just thought I'd note that this morning, having crawled from the crypt at the ungodly hour of 6:30 am, I passed the 300 mile marker on an eight-mile trot.

My next run will be my 50th since resuming on February 12th. Despite various lingering aches and pains, there's little doubt in my mind that running is making a tremendous contribution to my overall well-being. Not to mention that, if my records are correct, were I not running I would weigh 5.5 more pounds than I do today.

Lawyers Have Heart 10K

Oooh, it was HOT and STEAMY.

Which, while good in some areas of life, is definitely not what you want while running (75F and probably 80% humidity at 8 o'clock in the morning). Also, I only had about 4 hours of sleep last night.

Enough with the excuses!

I was 839th out of 910 women (8th percentile) and 36th out of 41 in my age group (12th percentile). Pretty much of a wash from the Capitol Hill Classic. But the pace, well, that was significantly slower: 11:41.

Still, I'm under my 12-minute pace, so that's good.

On Canal Road, someone yelled out of a car to a runner taking a walk break (not me): "Run, don't walk!"
I wanted to yell back: "Run, don't drive!"

Setback

On Wednesday, I ran out to the Capital Crescent Trail to meet a friend who wanted to start her own run-walk routine. About 500 yards before our meeting spot, I stepped on a rock and turned the foot that I injured last summer. OW.

And of course I then proceeded to run three miles with her.

OW.

Now I'm worried that I've re-injured myself badly enough to need to take a chunk of time off.

Please, let it not be so. Please, please, please.

Comeback!

This morning was the Capitol Hill Classic 10K. As always, I was nervous the night before the run, so I didn't sleep as much as I should have. But I did hydrate yesterday and had a Powerbar and a sugar-free Red Bull about an hour before the race. Breakfast of champions, baby!

Here's the really good news: I did better at this race than I did at the Leesburg 10K last August, before I was injured.

Savor it, my friends! I did better. Words cannot express how happy this makes me. My injury is now officially behind me.

Okay, now for the embarassing statistics. In a field of 911 women, I came in... 847th. Seventh percentile. In my age group, 95th out of 112: 15th percentile. (The winner of my age group finished 6th among women, at a blistering 6:14 minute mile pace. 'Course she's six years younger than me!)

But for me, the key stat is that my pace today was 11:53 ~ 2/3 of a minute per mile FASTER than my Leesburg pace. I'm slow, but I'm less slow than last time! Woo-hoo! And actually, they calculate pace using gun time, not chip time (don't ask me why), so it was actually more like 11:20. Heh.

Coming up: Rockville Rotary Twilighter 8K on July 16, and the Leesburg 20K on August 14. I might do the occasional 5K in between just for giggles.

200 Miles

It's nice to have passed the 200 mile mark as I approach this weekend's Capitol Hill Classic. Now all I have to do is practice getting up early in the morning. (Ugh.)

And after the race, I need to buy some wider running shoes. My right foot is taking a squeezing.

Who is this pod person?

I got up early this morning so that I could go running before work.

I did what? Do you even KNOW me?
Honestly, I'm a little worried.

Well, that simplifies THAT

The Marine Corps Marathon registration is now closed. Ironically, my ChampionChip arrived in the mail today.

I could conceivably do Richmond. It's scheduled for November 12, which is two weeks after the MCM. Now I'm trying to remember what Jocelyn said about it; I'll have to ask. It's a very small field (under 5000 runners), which could be nice for a first run.

Hmm. Well, there's time to think about it. It's not like they're going to sell out...

I had such a lovely run this morning (7 miles) that I'm prepared to believe anything is possible.

100 Miles

This morning's sluggish run gave me five miles, just enough to mark a distance of 100 miles since I started to run again. That's a nice feeling of accomplishment.

I'm still mulling whether or not I want to sign up for the Marine Corps Marathon. The fact that my left foot's a bit sore today (don't know why) is contributing towards my current lean toward "no."

On the other hand, if I don't do it this year, I'll probably never do it.

Capitol Hill Classic

I just signed up for my first race of the year, the Capitol Hill Classic 10K on May 22nd. I'm looking forward to it already! I even decided to go ahead and buy a ChampionChip, figuring that it would just be good incentive for me to keep signing up for races (to recoup the cost in chip fees, don't you know).

The last ~ and only ~ race I ran was the Leesburg 10K last year, on August 8th, before I hurt my ankle. My pace that day was 12:02. I'll really feel that I've finally come all the way back, if I can equal or exceed that pace this time.

Oh goody goody goody goody goody.

Running Around

The good news is that I got my run in today before the skies opened in deluge. The weatherman has been totally and preposterously WRONG the last week or so. We never got the snow that was threatened, for example, and it was almost 60 degrees today.

One more outing of 30 secs running and 1.5 minutes walking. Then I'll add ten seconds to the run and substract ten from the walk. The plan is to change the ratio gradually and in very modest increments, until I get to 2 minutes running, one minute walking. So far things are going okay.

I am having to exercise significant discipline to not speed up the process. I WANT to run longer and further. But I am also determined to not reinjure myself.

Also, given the continuing exacerbation of my bunions, I'm questioning whether I should be planning to run really long distances. In the grand scheme of things, I'd much rather run for 40 more years than run a marathon, have to have surgery, have it be problematic, and not be able to run at all. We'll see. I'm not going to even THINK about distance training beyond 10 miles until the Galloway program starts up again in May.

In case anyone hasn't noticed, let me just state once more for the record: for me, running is the best mood maintaining medication there is. I am feeling so much better, overall, after just 6 runs, that it's truly astonishing.

Run 1

Okay, not really much of a run. More like three miles of mildly accelerated stroll.

But I had my running gear on, new shoes and all. And I ran for 30 seconds of every two minutes. Which ended up giving me an overall speed of about 4 miles an hour, but who's counting?

The weather was lovely, the foot twinges minor. I plan to maintain this very gentle pace for at least the next week.

On the downside: in a fit of virtue, I arrived home and decided that while I was still warmed up, I should do some stretching. I put my workout tape in the VCR and did some stretching (I'm so stiff it's pathetic). Then, when I went to eject the tape ~ NO!

It wouldn't eject. Little VCR motor made sad, sad noises. Then silence.

Unplugging, shaking, prying, cursing ~ nothing seems to make a difference. My VCR is DOA. Now, mind you, I've had the thing since 1991, and it wasn't even very expensive back then, so I can't complain. And since I acquired a cheap DVD player recently, I suppose all is not lost. I just have to find a stretching DVD that I like.

Oh well. Hard to be too upset.
I got to RUN! And the weather was nice.

New Shoes

There may be a few ankle twinges yet, but I bought some new shoes (these are Asics).

I'm going to start out tomorrow, slowly, gently. Thirty seconds of running for two minutes of walking. Gently, slowly.

I can hardly wait.

oboyoboyoboyoboyoboy!!!!

Windy City Report

The lovely Andrew successfully broke the 3 hour 30 minute barrier in his third marathon!

The weather in Chicago was perfect ~ cool, not too windy (except for me, waiting at the intersection of Wacker and Franklin in the morning with a wicked breeze off the lake chilling everyone to the bone), and with negligible humidity. I met Andrew at three locations: just after the 3-mile mark, at the aforementioned intersection which was approximately 12.25, and then again in Chinatown at about 21.5. I swapped Gatorade bottles with him a couple of times, but other than shouting "Go, baby!" that was the extent of my contribution to his success. He finished in pretty good shape, with nothing much more than sore legs, a discoloured toenail, and a few minor blisters. I, for one, am most impressed.

Our friend Bernie also had a terrific showing in her second marathon, slicing an impressive 24 minutes off her previous time!

The three of us had dinner together Sunday evening at a restaurant recommended by Amy and Paul: Bistro 110 at Water Tower Place. I highly recommend it for a delicious meal, not too formal and not excessively pricey. I had an extremely potent martini as well as a glass of wine with my meal, and having arisen at 4:45 am, was totally knocked on my ass. But in a fun way.

On Monday, Andrew and I visited the Art Insitute for a few hours in as foot-sparing a way as possible. This wasn't really much of a tourist trip ~ it was really all about the marathon ~ but we had a good time when he wasn't running.

(Of course I am quietly eaten up with envy for all the sound of foot. I'm now trying to calculate when I will be sufficiently healed to begin training in earnest again, and whether I should try to shoot for Phoenix, or I should aim for something a little later on. In the meantime, I bought a lovely shirt in Chicago ~ while Andrew was getting his post-run massage ~ which I fully intend to wear to a victory dinner after MY first 26.2!)

Things Not To Do When You've Sprained Your Ankle

Don't go running.
Seriously, I'm saying don't, until it's healed.
Because it's just going to hurt more.

Don't stay up to all hours.
Especially sitting in a chair.
With your foot wedged underneath you.
Because the blood won't circulate, your ankle will swell up, and IT'S JUST GOING TO HURT MORE.

Don't substitute wishful thinking for common sense.
Dummy.

Getting Exercised

Well, apparently I could have been exercising all this time, despite the gimpy foot. Somehow I completely forgot about the fitness room at my workplace, complete with ankle-sparing elliptical trainers and weight machines. Treadmills too, for when I feel brave.

So last week I started using it, and I'm hoping to rebuild the shattered remnants of my stamina and endurance. I'm signed up for a half-marathon on Sunday, but I'm skeptical whether I'll be able to do it. I'll try a mile on the treadmill tomorrow and see how that goes.

Still hoping to manage the Marine Corps Marathon. But if not, then the Scottsdale P.F. Chang Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in January. Hey, I said I'd run a marathon, so I'm going to run a marathon. Eventually.

Running: There hasn't been any

I'm horribly hobbled, limpy, and pathetic. August 21st I sprained my foot, and I've been running twice since. Once, on August 24th, which served to aggravate my injury significantly. (It was, in a nutshell, EXTREMELY STUPID of me.) And then again just a few days ago, on Sept. 9th, where a pitiful 1.5 miles served to demonstrate that, despite feeling much better, I was not healed.

So now: still ow.

Foooey. I have no idea if I'll be able to recover in time for the marathon. Which sucks, considering how much time and effort (also: $) I've put into it so far.

Oh, the Mundanity!

This week features the following events of note:

• the brain surgery of my parish's rector, Jim Donald, to install a shunt, which we hope will relieve the pressure on his brain (please join me in praying for his health and well-being);


• three days of admin work, Monday through Wednesday, at NAMI (the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill);


• two mid-week runs of approximately 5-7 miles each;


• a chance to catch up on solo socializing whilst Andrew disports himself at Yoga Camp;


• an opportunity to make some more silver jewelry, thanks to the generous birthday gift of PMC from David & Lynn; and


• a 22 mile run on Saturday morning (which definitely indicates that I am insane, please pity me).

I have a few possible job irons in the fire. I'll certainly let you know if any of them progresses beyond the "I-sent-in-a-resume-through-somebody-I-know" phase.