This year has been a little messed up -- in many ways and for many people. But since you're here, let me tell you the sad-sack series of unfortunate AMT race debacles so far.
March 2017: had been training (sort of) for 30km ATB race. Went to my parents house for the weekend, tried to get mind in game. Set alarm for 7am. At 3am, we got the phone call that my grandmother had died... Er, so. No race for me. [Only silver lining is that I was at least with my family to help that day.] I had already attached the timing chip to my running shoes, so I kept it on that shoe for the rest of spring, thinking about that week and the passage of time.
May 2017: went to Vancouver to teach for 6 weeks. Registered for 8km race the day after I arrived. Flew in, got excited, got to my temporary home, got everything relevant unpacked, re-checked registration email... and discovered there was race day package pickup. ... Um. Ok, nevermind. [I ran a lot in my time out west, mostly up improbable hills, but no races.]
July 2017: went to Lexington KY to teach for a week. Registered for a 10km Fourth of July race the day after I arrived (I am a woman of patterns.) On my last training race, I felt something go awry on the outside of my right foot... but I shook it off, figured it would calm down, got home. So! Got to Lexington, got my friends' house, felt optimistic. Race day morning: 1 mile in, I knew this was a Bad Idea. But I was in an unfamiliar place, and I'd come all the way here to race, and my friends were waiting... ugh. So, I ran/limped the remaining 5 miles. NOT SMART.
Upshot: I had to take a whole month off of running. Doctors and x-rays said no stress fracture (thank fuck) but there was no running for an entire 30 days. I swam and stuff but it sucked big time.
So I've been running again since August, about 7 weeks now. My motto has been very start slow and taper, and it's been uncomfortable. I can run, but pushing faster than what should be a comfortable jog (e.g. 9:30/mile) makes my foot twingey; but running that speed also feels like i'm in between gears, like either I'm walking too fast or running too slow, and I have to think hard to keep my stride from devolving into some wobbly wonky thing. I'm not really sure if I'm even getting any stronger? A few miles into every run I feel like I'm not sure what I'm doing there.
Sept 2017: Today! Today I was signed up for an 8k race around a local lake, which I registered for once running had returned. It's a nice race and I was hesistantly happy about it. Given my track record above, I expected to forget my bib, or drive into a tree on the way, or lose a leg to sudden onset leprosy, or something.
TL; DR: It Went Fine!
About halfway through the race, I came across a little girl running on her own (she turned out to be 11) and she seemed to be struggling a bit so I asked if she wanted a running buddy and I ran/walked with her for a couple minutes. I told her she was amazing and she smiled big time, and then we parted ways and I ran to the finish. Despite that little break I ran 8k in 47 mins, so my overall pace was probably around 9:20, and that's pretty slow but I DID IT and I didn't walk and I didn't quit and nobody died and my foot hurts a medium amount (much less now that I've iced it) and that is gonna be my comeback.
I feel strong, and I'm taking that talisman running chip off my running shoe now. I had a good race. Onwards.
No comments:
Post a Comment