35.3

I am late in posting and low in mileage.

Thirty-five and change miles for June.  Not a good total for the official start month of marathon training.

Two things happened:

1.  Travel. I had a trip to the UK for work early in the month, but I had a plan–short, but frequent runs while I was away. I was even going to treadmill it if I had to.  Many, many things went wrong with this trip, to say the least.  The sum of these things resulted in 12+ hour days and complete mental and physical exhaustion.  So there was no running, at all, that week.

2.  Ouchy.  Two weeks ago I was out for a long run, a 12-miler on the Custis trail that was eventually headed to Upton Hill.  So basically straight up for 6 miles.  Well my calf only lasted 3.5 before I got the first hint of the stabby pains that have coincided with past calf injuries.  Trying to be smart and avoid a real injury, I stopped, tried to stretch it out (to no avail) and decided it was in my best interest to turn around and walk home.  I took a couple of days off, iced and such but two days later I could only get a mile in before the stabby stabby came back.

So, having been through the drill before, I took two weeks off to let the muscle fibers reweave themselves–hence sucky June mileage.  Now I don’t know what to do to get back on track with training. It’s obvious my body won’t let me overdo it, but mentally this is going to be hard. I’ve never been injured during training before.

I hit a decent four miles this evening w/o any pain so I think my self-prescribed time off was a good thing.  Now all I need is a plan.

Jerks

Yeah, I’m talking to you!

All you runners out there, running around and running and stuff, I don’t like you. (Especially those of you who were out there yesterday during the three hours of 70-degree weather.) Yeah, I snarl when you pass me or perhaps I’ll stare meanly into your eyes as you approach.  But I’m sorry! I don’t mean it, I swear! It’s just that I have jealous tendencies and I get all “wanty” when I see runners cross my path while I am not right there running with them. I could have just run a 16 miler and if I see someone running on my way home, green envy boils up within me.  Now that I am injured and have not run one stride since Jan. 26, it’s horrendously worse…I feel I might snap. So runners beware! Of me!

So the injury: MRI results show what is most likely a bursa sac on the top of my foot near the 1st metatarsal, the the webbing.  Or, there is a random spot of fluid sitting on top of my foot, in between my toe bones that makes it slightly painful to walk and mega-ly painful to run.

Augh. Stupid foot. Stupid doctor.   I am currently waiting to see a specialist since my orthopedist is more of the general kind and would like some other doc, who is apparently more inclined to have a foot fetish, look at me.  That appointment is not for another two weeks.

I don’t know if I can last.

My MCM 2007

The second time around was so much nicer, and much less painful. See here, for the painful version from last year.

Woo. I escaped marathon training and the actual race without injury. As this was my main goal, I am thrilled.

So after…
…418.3 miles of training
…2 pairs of Nike Air Pegasus
…64 summer mornings and nights filled with training runs
…16 packages of Sport Beans consumed
…Countless happy hours missed
…45 evenings of cross training
…Gallons and gallons of water and Gatorade chugged
…6.5 Official sign-wielding, race-day cheerleaders
(Thank you Buggie, Laura, I-66, Frank, Liz, Baby Chanuck, and KC! You guys rocked!)

and

…7 days rest

I am ready to do it again. I think the next target is the National Marathon here in March.

Should I be worried that I was able to get through all of the above w/o nary a scratch and then upon hitting my first morning run post-race, I came home with this:

Ow

So I can’t breathe.  Or rather, I can’t breathe comfortably.  Well, ok, I can’t take large breaths without pain.

See, two Sunday’s ago I took myself out for a run (because you know how I feel about the treadmill) thinking that the ice from Valentine’s day had vanished into the not freezing air we had enjoyed the day before.  I am out. I am running. I am feeling good.  Then I come to a sidewalk in Arlington where apparently the sun don’t shine because it was snow banky and icy and ice snowy banky…or basically a big pile of crap to try to run on.  I came upon this pile of crap (in the figurative sense) at mile 2 of my four mile run, and it (the big pile of crap/ice) did not end until I was three blocks from home.

So I am taking it easy, walking when necessary and shuffling along on parts that are not icy. Then, bam!  I step onto a snow bank that so slick I can’t keep my footing and after a few seconds of trying to “ski it out” I succumb and bite it.  No big deal, as my friends will attest, I fall down with semi-frequency while out running (maybe I should stay on the treadmill?). I get up and go on my way and head on home (never mind that at the end of the run I was hitting all those snow squalls that were in the area last week, nothing like a 10 minute blizzard to keep you on your toes).

When I got home I noticed that I had banged my knee pretty good on the ice, but again no big deal…I’ve done that before, so long as the bruise heals before I get to Boca and don my short skirts, I am fine.  What is a big deal is the searing knot of pain in my back that manifested itself upon waking the next day.  I don’t have back issues so I can only attribute this to my fall.  After realizing that it wasn’t going to go away on it’s own I popped some pain killers, took a couple yoga classes and things were better…until now. 

A week later, and it doesn’t hurt me on a consistent basis, just when I take deep breaths, sneeze, yawn or anything like that. It’s like someone is behind me stabbing me in the back.  It’s gotten to the point where I wince before I yawn or breathe deeply. No amount of stretching seems to help. I have a yoga class tonight so I am hoping that might work it out (third time’s the charm?) but outside of that I am out of ideas.

Ow.

Help.

Baby it’s cold outside

But you don’t feel it so badly when you’re running in it. No really. It’s actualy quite refreshing, even if you can’t feel your thighs.

This morning marked my second run in the outdoors since the marathon-induced injury.  It was just three miles and change, but it felt so good.  I’ve done a grand total of twelve miles in three weeks.  Not record breaking mileage by any means (well maybe I’ve broken the record for least amount of mileage logged in that span) but it feels good to be trying to get back into it.  S-l-o-w-l-y. The calf is still stiff and today it’s even a little sore, which says to me that maybe I am not doing this slow enough. Augh. I don’t know if I can go any slower.

Maybe taking the run outside was too big of a step (sidewalks and pavement are torture for your joints and muscles)…if I decide I am up for my scheduled three miler on Sunday, I guess it’s the treadmill for me.  I just can’t stand it. All I do is watch the mileage click by with every turn of each and every hundredth of a mile.  It’s torture and it makes a 30 minute run seem like 8 hours, even with cable television and an iPod.  Put me outside and I can run for hours and hours. 

Don’t worry, I don’t understand the logic on that one either.

My MCM 2006

Or better titled, How to Severely Fuck Up Your Calf and Hip.

I finished.

But with a gimpy shuffle step that was nearly (if not more than) 2 minutes per mile slower than my goal pace. Owie.

Everything was going along great. The first two miles were pretty slow going, but I had accounted for that knowing that it would be hard to get into a real pace with that many people. Once it thinned out a bit we started hitting our pace at just over 10 minute miles. My calf (which started giving me very minor problems a few days earlier) was feeling tight, but not at all painful which I took as a good sign.

[Cut to Mile 12.5…somewhere near the Smithsonian castle]

Snappity snap! Snap!

Searing pain.

At this point I can barely put weight on my right leg. I sent my running partner on without me (she finished in 4 hours 36 minutes) and stopped to stretch. Stretching did not feel good. I tried all sorts of positions. No real luck. Someone I had been training with passed me by and mentioned something about “maybe next time”. What? I am not bagging this freaking race! Not finishing didn’t even cross my mind. I limped back to the race path. By shuffling along and not coming off my toe I was able to keep the pain in my calf to a minimum. It meant I looked like Quasimoto when I ran, but I could run (if you can call it that). So began my shuffling limp of a run for the next 13+ miles.

Shortly after the injury I found two very friendly faces in the crowd, the lovely Jennifer and my friend D-Mac. I was thankful for the stoppage of play and the opportunity to complain about my injury. I reiterated (out loud this time) my desire to finish. They cheered me on and I limped off.

As I checked off another mile off the list of 26.2, I thought I heard my name…but not my name as it was taped to my chest…but rather my nickname of “Marci”. A name I had yet to hear that entire day. It was faint and I half-heartedly looked around. I-66, I still don’t know how I spotted you but I am glad I did. Figuring my time was blown anyway, I turned around to have a quick chat. This is when I realized Velvet in Dupont was there as well. Yay! I took the opportunity to complain some more. I am sure I was a joy at this point. Many thanks for listening to me guys, I am sorry! Also…was the tall dude The Captain? If so, I am sorry I didn’t hug you. We’ve played Fantasy Blogball together for two seasons now and we still have not met. I think it was you I heard yelling my name both times I spotted you guys in the crowd. So thanks! Really. It meant a lot. All of you.

I got into a sort of limpy groove and was able to keep my spirits up despite having to stop every mile and half to stretch out the stiffness and pain. [Side note: To the Tylenol 8-Hour sponsor folks. Do not put your signs up all over the fucking race course and not have your pain killing medication readily available. I looked for your little red pills at every med tent and every water stop from Mile 15 on. You suck and I hate you.] I think it was Mile 18 when the limping took it’s toll on my hip because my gait got pretty ugly after that. Adrenaline took over around Mile 22 and I was able to run it in without stopping (except for water) and without searing pain. It felt like my leg kind of shut down.

I was prepared for the finish, as many of my training runs followed the same route. I knew the little hill was coming right at the 26 mile mark and didn’t have issue with it. Stopping was the problem. Because once I stopped, it meant I had to move again and that was (and is) the hardest thing I had to deal with—transitioning from sitting to standing/from standing to walking. Not fun.

Also not fun? Mentally feeling as if I did not run a marathon. I am on the fence as to whether or not I am happy I finished or if I should have gone for the DNF*. My quads feel like they ran a marathon. My hip and my calf are just all sorts of unhappy. My brain, meh. I dunno.

But I thank all of you for your wishes of support going in and wishes of congratulations coming out of this thing. I will run another one. That is the worst thing right now. Outside of the injuries, I feel great. I just know I could have had a great race. So I’ve got to do another one to see how it was really supposed to go.

It won’t be Marine Corps though…augh…what a mess. Maybe the Chicago marathon next fall? It is my favorite city!

Next up? Gar-Williams half-marathon in December. Let’s see if I can get healthy for that.

*But I did pass the running banana I saw at Mile 16. Thank God for that! How embarrassing would it have to been to lose to a banana!

Also, Jen, cold french toast is mighty fucking good at 2:30 in the morning. Which is when I finally had the stomach to eat my brunch! Thank you!

Losing is the new winning?

Ok, for a recap of the much-anticipated Erotic Photo Hunt Challenge, you can check out DC SportsChick and Miss M.

*#$*&$(&)@(*)@(*)(@#$

Yes, Boobers lost. Lubers were good, way good (I hate them). But in our defense I must say we were a victim of poor calibration and an unfortuante accident the morning of the Challenge. You see, half of Team Boobers was injured.

That is my photo-hunting hand people! I was less than 100%.
I blame Tonya Harding, or more likely, Nick Harper’s wife.

Outside of losing, it was a super fun evening. And we may have decided to take the show on the road and spread the Boobers and Lubers names all over the DC-area bar-top gaming industry. So watch out!

The gamers (left to right), Buggie, Me (aka Team Boobers), DC SportsChick and Miss M’s cheek (along with the rest of Miss M, aka Team Lubers):

owie

Clawed by a very large mountain lion? Or slipping on a wet escalator stair while slightly tipsy after last night’s happy hour? Hard to tell isn’t it?

Oh, the dangers of the city

would you like some cheese with my whine?

Ok, bear with me…The race is in 3 days and I can barely run 4 miles, much less 10. But I paid good money to enter this damn thing and by golly (how old am I, 60?) I am going to run it. Or run/walk it. Or walk it? No, I am not smart, I will not drop out and I will not walk it–I know myself too well and that just isn’t going to happen BUT I am going to try to take it easy. This means I won’t race it. Not going out for time, just for finishing. Ouch, hurts to say that. But this damn calf strain won’t go away. Why is it at race time, I end up injured? I don’t think I am pushing myself so hard that my body can’t handle it. I mean coming off the Achilles tendonitis and the lingiring hamstring issue, I was ramping up slowly to get back to 25-30 mpw…but no. Stabby stabby in the calf and hell if it won’t go away. It’s been a month AND I took 2 full weeks off of running (which never happens). It’s better now, I can run on it but it aches afterwards. And I am only doing 10 mpw!Ice is my new best friend. I am going to try to hit at least 5 this afternoon — we’ll see how that goes then two days off in prep for Sunday’s race.