2013 Running Thread

AWESOME, Marie! Have a GREAT run!!!

Checking in....Hope the NYC marathon runners had a wonderful run. The weather, though cool here in the north, was prime for fall running.

Full disclosure...in the last couple of months I have been working long hours and my share of OT. Over the summer I signed on to run the inaugural 10 miler for Pittsburgh. This was my incentive to work up to a longer run with ample time to train. The time seemed to run out and I had a lot of misgivings about my ability to run this length. I found 20 excuses for not attending this race. However, I had a few peeps keep at me and I did indeed show up for the race. A beautiful, crisp late Fall in the Burgh...really the perfect day for a little run around the hood

I was with 2 other women, who really got me stoked. There were a lot of serious runners around, but I realized there were many people, like myself, who were setting goals and giving it their best. The ladies and I agreed there would be some walking when needed and stops at the water stations long enough to hydrate and take a deep breath. The start was smooth even though we knew we had a challenging grade to climb and a bridge to cross in the first 1 1/2 miles. Out the gate and off we went. Starting between the 11 and 11:30 min/ mile pacers.

I am always nervous at the start, but was letting go of the anxiety a little when .........................

My left foot found a lonely round rock.

My foot/ankle rolled............and I flew through the air like superman. Skinned my right knee, bruised my left knee, skinned my left elbow ripped my pretty running jacket.....along with my glove from the impact. Did I mention the rolled ankle...that was the worst. I could feel the seering pain and swelling immediately. I managed to hobble to the side of the road to determine my next action and waved my friends on. I tried to walk it off. After all......this was all in the first half mile.

For some reason, I began a slow jog. And kept going.....1 mile...2 mile.........I realized I hadn't fallen all that far behind as I was slightly ahead of the 12 min pacer, then fell slightly behind that group and remained there. I tried to walk and the pain was excruciating.......so I ran.......stopped at the water station, drank a gatorade and rinsed with water, then proceeded to run. They had bands playing along the way and I continued to stay between the 12-1230 min pacers. The pain was getting a little worse, but even worse when I walked on it. I didn't spot any first aid stations so I asked some runners near me......close to the 4th mile we spotted a station but I still had to make my way to it. Thinking I would stop off and get a good ankle wrap so I could continue on my way, even if it meant walking to the finish.

The minute I sat down, The pain increased and the swelling was clearly impressive. Of course I was questioned extensively and unable to get back up to continue my run. Not that the medical team would allow it. They removed me from the race and stopped my tracking so I wouldn't end up on the "lost runners list". Pretty crushed and can you believe I almost cried.

The medics faces were priceless when I told them I crashed and burned a half mile into the race....not a half mile before arriving at their station...LOL. All 4 shook their heads in disbelief that I managed 4 miles on the ever growing ankle.

Iced and taken to the main medical station in town which was being housed in the lobby of one of our beautiful theaters. A sports medicine fellow took great care of me. My pain is localized at the ankle right at the boney prominence. Tendons/ligaments were responding well to manipulation. The volunteers were trying to figure out a way to get me back to the car. I suggested they drop me off at the finish so I could hook up with my friends, but no one wanted me to walk quite that far and walking would be needed indeed as we would only be able to get so close while the roads were closed. I saw a lot of peeps wearing medals and got a little sad again.

The volunteers coordinated a ride for me on the VIP bus. City cop put me in a wheelchair and rolled me down the road to the school bus. HAHAHAHa. what a sight I am sure. VIP Bus My BUTT! I was riding with the ELITE RUNNERS!!!!!

The Male winner was sitting right behind me. And the sponsors for the female winner across from me. I was floored and suddenly immersed in a group I never really thought about. I enjoyed hearing how much the visitors were enjoying our city and how beautiful they found it to be. I decided-when my interest wanes or the body gives out, I will volunteer for some of these big races. It takes many people to make these events happen and being on the receiving end of the care and concern of so many really opened my eyes up a bit more.

I made it to my car, home to shower and beer in hand. Yes, one treat after races is having a nice cold one. No matter what the distance.

I love the running crowd, no matter anyones level of running, interest or involvement..... this crew rocks. I only wish I had discovered running sooner in my life.

NO Looking back......forward motion and kind of excited to get back at it when my ankle cooperates.

xoxoxoxoxo

Piper

Oh piper, what a story! But once the disappointment passes, it will be great to tell at parties!

Looking forward to the reports from NYC!

Congrats on getting the surgery done, Alaskamama! Onward!

Wow, sandpiper! What an odyssey. I always think that it's those weird and strange things that happen to us that provide the most memorable times. Glad you weren't injured even worse, but what a trip (literally AND figuratively)!!!

I totally get what you mean about the running community. There is a spirit there that is addictive and heartwarming. It is what keeps me coming back to the races...what often gets me through a tough workout run is knowing that there are similar crazy, wonderful people out there, running in all kinds of weather, discomfort, emotional distress, whatev...all at the same time. And that we'll all get to run together in a race, cheer each other on, take care of each other...go home, have that cold one...and go out and do it all over again. High school ends, college ends, jobs ends, heck even relationships end, but there's always another race to look forward to !!!

Lol Summer, a Trip indeed and your perspective is dead on and well put.

Alaskamom-speedy recovery.

RunFree-hope all is well and your return to running is smooth and comforting.

LuLu I am already contemplating my next race, pending recovery of my ankle/foot.

Gold-The story is already becoming a source of entertainment for my coworkers because so many knew I was running the 10miler with another coworker!

xoxoxoxoxo

Piper

I haven't been on here for a while - it's nice to see everyone is active.

For anyone who is interested, entry for the lottery for the Nike Women's Half in DC next April is open. All finishers get a Tiffany necklace!

I did it last year - it was fun seeing 15,000 women all lined up to run this race. And running around DC and all the monuments is an experience. Bonus - it's a mostly flat course. And they do allow men to enter and run, but there were only a few hundred of them and it's very much aimed towards women.

Link to enter: http://www.nike.com/events/register/werundc/

I've been doing 5Ks - I've figured out that those are pretty much my speed, with the occasional 10K thrown in for good measure. Did a 5K in Gettysburg PA during the gov't shutdown - the course ran alongside the battlefield for a good part, and it was sad to see it all barricaded it off. The most fun recent 5K I've done was a 5K downhill at Whitetail Ski Resort in PA a couple of weeks ago - very different race. The racers took a chair lift to the top, then we ran down. I'd already tweaked my knee a bit before that, and the downhill run, while loads of fun, didn't help the knee! I've decided to baby the knee for a month, and don't have another 5K till the Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot 5K in Hagerstown, MD.

Summer - I like your quote. My favorite quote was on a sign a spectator was holding during the Nike Half last year - "Some day you will not be able to do this. Today is not that day." I think of that quote often - not only for running, but whenever I'm faced with a challenge.

My new massage therapist yesterday was telling me she was jumping in the Nike Half lottery. Good luck to the entries!

After almost 2 years since DIEP, working out the pain and tightness, and graduating to trying to strengthen stuff, my physio and I finally figured out I need deep massage in the abdomen to break up underneath scar tissue. It's not just the muscle weakness or the hip flexor thing - I can't isolate my ab muscles because they're stuck together I think. So anyway, just one session was a big improvement - I went straight from the massage to the physio appointment (same clinic) and made much more progress. Still weak but progress. I feel it most in my head - not such a hopeless feeling. Have already booked follow up for both next week.

Friday I fly to Orlando for the Wine & Dine Half. Thanks to basically six months of one deadline after another, I am not trained but no pressure. I just want to BE there. I am already feeling wired. Just love this night run. Will probably do some light running to loosen up when I arrive - there's lots of nice pathways around the resort and you can loop around in infinite ways for various distance, no traffic. A couple of professional colleagues are also doing it and we're having a girls' weekend. One just did a <4:00 marathon, and the other has a foot injury and is walking, so we won't be pacing each other! We'll meet up by the wine later :-)

Yes, exactly goldlining. I have talked to some people who are 85+ and been struck by how many of them say they want to go fast. My step-grandmother lived to be 94, and every time someone in her senior-care apartment building died in their sleep, everybody else was really jealous! So I hope Joy would say that she died easily and happy. I hope so. It's still sad though, and I always find those delayed-reaction head-injury stories really scary.

I am so jealous of you doing the Wine & Dine Half, and with girlfriends. I don't have any running girlfriends. And this is a rotten time of the semester for me anyway. But maybe in a future November.

Honestly, we were talking about running and I hardly noticed! And I can't really feel much in that area. So it wasn't painful though she said maybe it would be. It was funny - she said sometimes deep massage on the abdomen can cause the digestive system to become more active, but she wondered if that would happen because I didn't have a lot of sensitivity there other than a little bit of tension in the skin. As it happened, we'll never know, because I had unintentionally eaten allergens the day before and there wasn't anything left in my digestive system to get all agitated.

I asked if she objectively found anything to explain what I was reporting and she said there were knots and they were more on one side than the other, which corresponded to my perception, because I was asymmetrically reassembled. She also said my back and hips were less knotted than she expected and the worst was in the abs.

In my shoulders (which are strained as a result of the pulling-forward caused by the abs) she found lots of stuck stuff, but as usual, the worse knots were on the side opposite where it was subjectively more painful. That is always the case in my shoulders - just odd. Maybe the worst pain just overwhelms the nerves or something.

Definitely doing it again!

Gracers, BIG CONGRATULATIONS on finishing radiation!!! That is such a good feeling. Some people are more tired a couple weeks after they finish, but I never really had the body slam I was expecting. I felt sleepy a little earlier in the day a few times, was all. I don't know if the bone and joint problems on that AI feel like DOMS, but you'll have gotten some good miles in, and you may indeed entertain your MO.

Lovestorun, thank you! It's a big improvement for me to have virtual running friends. My community--regular and running--is very sweet, but very small. Sometimes you just need critical mass. So today I was reading the Runner's World that just came, specifically about the new young-people-led running clubs in cities like the November Project in Boston. If I were 25 and living in Boston (as I once was and did), I'd like to think I would join up. Just after that article was a full-page ad for the RW Heartbreak Hill Half & Festival in Boston on June 6-8. And I'm tempted. The location's not bad (2 hours away) and the timing could be worse (my school year is over, though my kids' will be intense just then). I'm not even sure whether I'd register for the 10K or the half. Hypothetically, I have time to get myself from an occasional 2 or 3 miles now to a half in 7 months, but between my job, my still wobbly motivation (an itching problem is very distracting), and a lingering calf injury, I'm not sure it would actually happen. Is anyone else tempted by that race weekend, or already planning to do it? Here's the link:

http://rw.runnersworld.com/hhhalf/

I will also ask my Facebook friends, which could very well yield some recruits, so this isn't intended to sound pressuring.

Great job Buddhahead! A half in Huntington Beach in February sounds divine from where I sit in NH, on the first day of snowfall. Are you back to running now post-marathon?

gold lining...Congratulations and well done!

I ran/walked Saturday and Sunday and boy am out of shape. My recently radiated skin reacted lastnight as my RO predicted. Gads...it's like having a bad sunburn and poison oak at the same time. I am resting with an ice bag on my chest as I type. No open wounds yet and I hope none to come. Love to you all on the best thread on the board!

Alaskamama - I can't give advice because I am right behind you and won't have surgery until the end of March, but I definitely know the feeling of being overwhelmed. You have gotten through so much already and you will get through this too. I'm sure it's too early for you to run now, but you will be running in no time! Great idea about pushing for the PT appointment. I am going to follow your lead and do exactly the same thing.

I finished week 6 of C25K yesterday and am on to week 7.