A Series of Bad Decisions
Well - I'm on crutches. Which - long story short - is the result of a series of bad decisions. But first, to get you caught up - since I haven't written since the end of March!
My ankle had me out of commission for about two weeks. And then it started feeling fine - so I jumped back into training. Things were going pretty well - though Robert (Team In Training Coach) and good friend told me that I really should run with Pete and Susan because they're faster than I am. I fought and fought - despite the fact that I don't think I've ever been able to go more than 10 miles with them before petering out.
Anyway, so sometimes I would still run the beginning of my runs with them. April passed without too much of note in my running life - except that around this time Brant decided that he would run San Diego too - so he started his training. Also - had really bad allergies so I had to run in glasses instead of contacts - which went better than expected, actually.
Oh yeah - and right after getting back from Atlanta I started working for Team In Training - which has been awesome!
Anyway, we had the 21 miler on May 12. I started with Pete and Susan - and then let them go on ahead - after about 9 miles. Then I started to notice that I was getting a blister. I went past a water stop - got to the next one - was really starting to feel tired - stopped to chat for a bit while getting water, then back to the first water stop - and I finally gave up and admitted I had a blister. Stopped and got it bandaged - but it still hurt. And I was really tired by this point.
Ran a bit more - though I had started walking up all the "hills." Then I started interspersing a lot more walking. Like half miles of walking. I finally made it to the end - taking much longer than I had intended. Maybe I started too hard, maybe it was too hot, maybe I was just tired.
Anyway, on that run, Pete's knee started hurting. So they decided they were going to run intervals. The next week I decided I could join them if they were doing intervals...so the next week I did the 14 miles with them.
We were doing a 7:1, which was kind of a weird interval for me - and I think we were running faster and actually potentially walking slower than I normally would. I felt okay though - until about two hours after the run.
And then it hurt. In my left hip. Especially to lift my knee up from sitting, but also just to walk, though it would get better the more I moved it.
So I decided I should rest it a bit. Tried stretching and whatnot. On Tuesday I went out for a half hour run - and was pretty miserable. I could tell I was limping, and so eventually I gave up to walk. On Thursday I went for a walk with Brant. That still hurt. So on Friday I went to see Caroline, my chiropractor.
She said I strained a muscle. They did ultrasound on it and told me to heat, stretch, massage and ice it.
Here comes one of the first bad decisions. I didn't really heat. Or massage that much. I did stretch and ice, but even that I didn't do as much as I probably should have.
I did take the week off of running.
And then I went to San Diego and started a marathon.
Which apparently was another of my bad decisions.
According to Dave, Tyson, Brant, Marisa and her sister Crystal (we all started together) I was limping from the start. I kept up with the boys for a while though. I ended up letting them go ahead when they were running 9:45s instead of 10s like they said they were going to run. At the 10K I was doing really well. I was pretty much on a 10 min mile pace and was pretty thrilled with that.
I felt tired - but the good kind. My hip hurt a little, but I thought I could push through it and finish out the race. I was so excited when I passed the 5:00 pace group. I thought I had a good chance of even catching up to the 4:30 pace group. I was in good spirits.
Somewhere around 8 miles we went onto 163 and hit roads with the worst cant I have ever run on. I swear it must have been 30 degrees. (I want to say 45, but I know it couldn't have really been *that* bad, I mean, people do drive on this road...but it was really really slanted!!)
I ran for a little bit while holding onto my hip because it helped me limp a little less. I finally realized that maybe that wasn't actually super healthy. Though I think three people had already asked me if I was okay by that point. I was really disappointed when the 5 hour pace group passed me again.
Eventually I decided I really needed to walk - the road was going on forever - and not getting any flatter. So I walked. And more people asked me if I was okay. I said yeah - I just strained a muscle a couple of weeks ago. I got a lot of sympathetic looks and words as everyone passed me by. One coach tried to tell me how to stretch my IT band, but I told him that really wouldn't help.
The further I went the more it hurt on each step. I started to look for friendly faces. I saw Mirna - one of the girls from the West Houston team go by and I cheered her on. Finally I saw a Team In Training coach from Houston - she was from The Woodlands, so we'd never met officially, but I told her who I was and that I worked at the office. (I was not wearing a purple singlet - so she didn't immediately recognize me as being associated with TNT.)
Thankfully - she walked with me for quite a while. I was walking at 20 min miles for a while, then it got closer to 24 min miles. There was no way I could get to the finish at that pace - they would have to pick me up. So I decided to stop at the half.
Saw Art - who is a fellow mentor from West Houston and will be a coach for the winter season. He walked with us for a bit until Leah - another West Houston teammate came by and he ran with her. Eventually Linda left too.
Brant's cousin Wendy and her husband Brian (and their dogs Spike and Pharaoh) caught up with me and walked with me for a bit too - which was nice. They had walked from where they saw Dave and Brant and Tyson. Brant and Tyson were together and Dave was out ahead of them. It was a good thing they'd walked or I wouldn't have seen them at all!
I was in a fair amount of pain - but I figured it was only a few more miles. (Another bad decision.) I went by two medical tents and didn't stop. I thought about it - but again - it seemed so close to the half...
By the time I got there even more coaches were asking if I was okay - I said I was fine and just asked where the cutoff was. Finally I passed the half marathon mark (it took me a bit over 3 hours) and veered off the course to the TNT half marathon finish. Met up with Wendy and Brian and then went over to get my half medal. Saw Crystal (her foot was hurting her - was possibly fractured, so she was doing the half too) and she said they could give me a ride to the finish.
I said bye to Wendy and Brian and went to walk over with Crystal. And discovered that I couldn't walk. At all. I could put no weight at all on my left leg. Not even to limp. Marisa and Crystal's parents were there, along with a few of Crystal's friends and another family friend. They started devising a plan for how to get me to the full finish line.
The friend ended up carrying me. Eventually - we even introduced ourselves. :) His name was Dan and had lived in Tucson and been friend's with Tyson, Dave and Josh Allen. He carried me over to a bus, and we all got on and rode back over to the finish. By this time, one of Crystal's friends had also gotten her long board from the car and brought it. So when we got to the finish I got to sit on the skateboard and get pushed to the medical tent. This was much easier for Dan. :)
At the medical tent I was given a bag of ice. Then one of the medics/doctors/volunteers came over to see how I was doing and tried to help me stand. That still wasn't happening. He told me that they couldn't really do anything for me there - so they could take me to the hospital, or I could have friends take me home. I opted for friends. Then he asked for the chair back. Ha ha. Since they could help others it did make sense. So we moved me over to a tree.
Dave had found us by this point in time - he'd finished in 4:21. I was impressed. His training wasn't much better than Brant's had been.
Brant and Tyson finished in 4:51. Marisa finished in 6:11. It was her first marathon! (If you want to read about her training and also more about Josh - who she was running in memory of, visit her blog at http://www.teamgiant.org/)
Anyway, eventually we skateboarded me over to the car - and went to buy some crutches. Looking back - I realize I probably shouldn't have been running. And I should have stopped any number of times. I don't know - I guess I figured that since I was still walking - I was okay. Apparently - my will is stronger than I give it credit for. I trained and went all that way - I was going to get a medal darn it!
So I've been on crutches since then. On Tuesday I could at least put a little bit of weight on my leg. By Wednesday it was enough that I could stand on two feet - just not one - so I still couldn't walk. And that's pretty much where I am today.
Yesterday I went to my orthopedist, who thinks I pulled a muscle. I start physical therapy on Monday. If I'm not doing a lot better by Friday I'll get an MRI to see if anything is torn. So keep your fingers crossed. A pull is much better than a tear! And I have the Nike Women's Marathon in October to prepare for - so I'd like to get better quickly! :)
(Okay, I swear - I really did learn something from this - I'm really not going to start running again until I get the all clear. And then I'm going to take it easy - and not push myself to breaking this time!)
My ankle had me out of commission for about two weeks. And then it started feeling fine - so I jumped back into training. Things were going pretty well - though Robert (Team In Training Coach) and good friend told me that I really should run with Pete and Susan because they're faster than I am. I fought and fought - despite the fact that I don't think I've ever been able to go more than 10 miles with them before petering out.
Anyway, so sometimes I would still run the beginning of my runs with them. April passed without too much of note in my running life - except that around this time Brant decided that he would run San Diego too - so he started his training. Also - had really bad allergies so I had to run in glasses instead of contacts - which went better than expected, actually.
Oh yeah - and right after getting back from Atlanta I started working for Team In Training - which has been awesome!
Anyway, we had the 21 miler on May 12. I started with Pete and Susan - and then let them go on ahead - after about 9 miles. Then I started to notice that I was getting a blister. I went past a water stop - got to the next one - was really starting to feel tired - stopped to chat for a bit while getting water, then back to the first water stop - and I finally gave up and admitted I had a blister. Stopped and got it bandaged - but it still hurt. And I was really tired by this point.
Ran a bit more - though I had started walking up all the "hills." Then I started interspersing a lot more walking. Like half miles of walking. I finally made it to the end - taking much longer than I had intended. Maybe I started too hard, maybe it was too hot, maybe I was just tired.
Anyway, on that run, Pete's knee started hurting. So they decided they were going to run intervals. The next week I decided I could join them if they were doing intervals...so the next week I did the 14 miles with them.
We were doing a 7:1, which was kind of a weird interval for me - and I think we were running faster and actually potentially walking slower than I normally would. I felt okay though - until about two hours after the run.
And then it hurt. In my left hip. Especially to lift my knee up from sitting, but also just to walk, though it would get better the more I moved it.
So I decided I should rest it a bit. Tried stretching and whatnot. On Tuesday I went out for a half hour run - and was pretty miserable. I could tell I was limping, and so eventually I gave up to walk. On Thursday I went for a walk with Brant. That still hurt. So on Friday I went to see Caroline, my chiropractor.
She said I strained a muscle. They did ultrasound on it and told me to heat, stretch, massage and ice it.
Here comes one of the first bad decisions. I didn't really heat. Or massage that much. I did stretch and ice, but even that I didn't do as much as I probably should have.
I did take the week off of running.
And then I went to San Diego and started a marathon.
Which apparently was another of my bad decisions.
According to Dave, Tyson, Brant, Marisa and her sister Crystal (we all started together) I was limping from the start. I kept up with the boys for a while though. I ended up letting them go ahead when they were running 9:45s instead of 10s like they said they were going to run. At the 10K I was doing really well. I was pretty much on a 10 min mile pace and was pretty thrilled with that.
I felt tired - but the good kind. My hip hurt a little, but I thought I could push through it and finish out the race. I was so excited when I passed the 5:00 pace group. I thought I had a good chance of even catching up to the 4:30 pace group. I was in good spirits.
Somewhere around 8 miles we went onto 163 and hit roads with the worst cant I have ever run on. I swear it must have been 30 degrees. (I want to say 45, but I know it couldn't have really been *that* bad, I mean, people do drive on this road...but it was really really slanted!!)
I ran for a little bit while holding onto my hip because it helped me limp a little less. I finally realized that maybe that wasn't actually super healthy. Though I think three people had already asked me if I was okay by that point. I was really disappointed when the 5 hour pace group passed me again.
Eventually I decided I really needed to walk - the road was going on forever - and not getting any flatter. So I walked. And more people asked me if I was okay. I said yeah - I just strained a muscle a couple of weeks ago. I got a lot of sympathetic looks and words as everyone passed me by. One coach tried to tell me how to stretch my IT band, but I told him that really wouldn't help.
The further I went the more it hurt on each step. I started to look for friendly faces. I saw Mirna - one of the girls from the West Houston team go by and I cheered her on. Finally I saw a Team In Training coach from Houston - she was from The Woodlands, so we'd never met officially, but I told her who I was and that I worked at the office. (I was not wearing a purple singlet - so she didn't immediately recognize me as being associated with TNT.)
Thankfully - she walked with me for quite a while. I was walking at 20 min miles for a while, then it got closer to 24 min miles. There was no way I could get to the finish at that pace - they would have to pick me up. So I decided to stop at the half.
Saw Art - who is a fellow mentor from West Houston and will be a coach for the winter season. He walked with us for a bit until Leah - another West Houston teammate came by and he ran with her. Eventually Linda left too.
Brant's cousin Wendy and her husband Brian (and their dogs Spike and Pharaoh) caught up with me and walked with me for a bit too - which was nice. They had walked from where they saw Dave and Brant and Tyson. Brant and Tyson were together and Dave was out ahead of them. It was a good thing they'd walked or I wouldn't have seen them at all!
I was in a fair amount of pain - but I figured it was only a few more miles. (Another bad decision.) I went by two medical tents and didn't stop. I thought about it - but again - it seemed so close to the half...
By the time I got there even more coaches were asking if I was okay - I said I was fine and just asked where the cutoff was. Finally I passed the half marathon mark (it took me a bit over 3 hours) and veered off the course to the TNT half marathon finish. Met up with Wendy and Brian and then went over to get my half medal. Saw Crystal (her foot was hurting her - was possibly fractured, so she was doing the half too) and she said they could give me a ride to the finish.
I said bye to Wendy and Brian and went to walk over with Crystal. And discovered that I couldn't walk. At all. I could put no weight at all on my left leg. Not even to limp. Marisa and Crystal's parents were there, along with a few of Crystal's friends and another family friend. They started devising a plan for how to get me to the full finish line.
The friend ended up carrying me. Eventually - we even introduced ourselves. :) His name was Dan and had lived in Tucson and been friend's with Tyson, Dave and Josh Allen. He carried me over to a bus, and we all got on and rode back over to the finish. By this time, one of Crystal's friends had also gotten her long board from the car and brought it. So when we got to the finish I got to sit on the skateboard and get pushed to the medical tent. This was much easier for Dan. :)
At the medical tent I was given a bag of ice. Then one of the medics/doctors/volunteers came over to see how I was doing and tried to help me stand. That still wasn't happening. He told me that they couldn't really do anything for me there - so they could take me to the hospital, or I could have friends take me home. I opted for friends. Then he asked for the chair back. Ha ha. Since they could help others it did make sense. So we moved me over to a tree.
Dave had found us by this point in time - he'd finished in 4:21. I was impressed. His training wasn't much better than Brant's had been.
Brant and Tyson finished in 4:51. Marisa finished in 6:11. It was her first marathon! (If you want to read about her training and also more about Josh - who she was running in memory of, visit her blog at http://www.teamgiant.org/)
Anyway, eventually we skateboarded me over to the car - and went to buy some crutches. Looking back - I realize I probably shouldn't have been running. And I should have stopped any number of times. I don't know - I guess I figured that since I was still walking - I was okay. Apparently - my will is stronger than I give it credit for. I trained and went all that way - I was going to get a medal darn it!
So I've been on crutches since then. On Tuesday I could at least put a little bit of weight on my leg. By Wednesday it was enough that I could stand on two feet - just not one - so I still couldn't walk. And that's pretty much where I am today.
Yesterday I went to my orthopedist, who thinks I pulled a muscle. I start physical therapy on Monday. If I'm not doing a lot better by Friday I'll get an MRI to see if anything is torn. So keep your fingers crossed. A pull is much better than a tear! And I have the Nike Women's Marathon in October to prepare for - so I'd like to get better quickly! :)
(Okay, I swear - I really did learn something from this - I'm really not going to start running again until I get the all clear. And then I'm going to take it easy - and not push myself to breaking this time!)
