Sunday, October 30, 2011

More Running

I can't believe where God has brought me.  I remember being so determined to run the Fresno marathon this year.  I wanted to PR (set a personal record), shaving 15 minutes off of last year's time since I hadn't trained enough last year.

Then I tried running sprints on cement.  Four half-mile sprints.  It was an awesome workout, except for the after-math of injuring my right heel.  I was worried I sprained my Achilles tendon.  I was frustrated not being able to run anymore.  Not just frustrated, but scared.

Then my doctor told me I was good to start running again, slowly, and on dirt only to start.  I got excited about the possibility of the marathon again.  It was aggressive; too aggressive.  For whatever reason, my left ankle has now started swelling at the beginning of most of my training runs.  I massage it out and then it's usually fine.

So I'm running the half-marathon, which pridefully felt like such a wimpy effort to not do at least the full marathon (there was an ultra-marathon which was five miles longer).  I honestly considered not racing at all.  It was pride.  The only thing that could really lift that was the prospect of something being free.  I ran a 10K at the beginning of October in downtown Fresno, and there was a deal of getting two free items of past years' race gear (hats, tech shirts, etc.) if you signed up at this event.  So I got two more racing caps, which are usually $15-$25 I think.  It also helped to see that this year's color for the tech shirts is green, which is my favorite color.  It's the little things in life.

So the race still kind of snuck up on me.  I did 6 miles last weekend, somehow thinking I still had another month before the race.  Nope, two weeks as my friend Stephanie reminded/shocked me that Saturday evening.  So I pulled on my running shoes the next morning and did another four.  Then another four Monday night.  And Wednesday morning another four.  That still didn't condition me to jump to ten yesterday, but I did it.  I wasn't sore afterward, but I could tell my whole body just wanted to go on strike for what I was doing to it.  But now I think I'm almost ready for the half next Sunday.  I'm excited!!!!!

And the doctor confirmed it wasn't my Achilles tendon at all, but the misalignment of one of the bones in my heel.  Continued chiropractic adjustments should continue to take care of it.  He encouraged me to use this race to springboard to a marathon in a couple months.  Now I just have to find a good one.

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