Back in December, a walking warrior friend convinced a bunch of us to do the Rock 'n Roll half marathon with her. I haven't mentioned yet except for briefly in this post about the walking / running I do. Somehow, and I'm not sure how or why, I started joining a group of awesome sleevers who like to get up way too early on weekends to walk around a local nature preserve. And by early, I mean 6:15am, which means waking up no later than 5:30. Yeah, again, not sure what motivated me to start doing this, though soon I figured out that finishing an extended workout by 8:00 with your whole day still left was nice.
I started walking with them in the Summer, where I struggled to keep up, and finishing a lap of just over two miles left me winded and spent. I remember being shocked when they said they were going for a second lap! I had never walked more than two miles intentionally except for one time; a 5K I completed with a friend that left me exhausted and took 90 minutes to finish. But I grudgingly did the 2nd lap with them, and as Summer turned to Fall, and the temperature and pounds began to drop, we started walking more and more, faster and faster. By October, six to seven miles twice a weekend was common. One day in November, we did 10. We would be engrossed in conversation and barely noticed that we were exercising. It was (and still is) awesome. Not to mention the coffee or breakfast that would inevitably follow.
panorama shot of the sunrise at Arbor Hills Nature Preserve, our normal walking haven
By December, we'd hit our stride, figuratively and literally. Instead of spending the time off sleeping in and eating delicious Christmas goodies, we were out there most mornings plugging away. So when this friend brought up the half marathon, I was hesitant at first, but warmed up to the idea quickly. It was only a few miles more than the most we'd already gone, after all. And it fell only two weeks after my surgiversary, so it was very symbolic to me, representing all that I had accomplished for my health over the last year.
Around this same time, I went from walking to doing a good bit of running. In September, I was able to run for one minute before I pooped out. It took a while to build to two, then three, then a half mile, then eventually two straight miles. By the 2nd week of January, two miles turned into five. By the end of February, I completed a 10 mile run. My cardiovascular function was pretty great. I wasn't that fast, but I was steady.
But that run took a toll on my body, or rather not allowing myself to recover before running again did. I ran on the treadmill two days later, and I just didn't feel right. I was tired and my muscles were tight. By the evening, my left Achilles tendon started to ache. It got worse over the next two days and started to really hurt. I couldn't take a normal step without grimacing. I looked up causes of Achilles tendonosis, and I had made every mistake on the list. Ramping up mileage too quickly? Check. Too many hills? Big check. Arbor Hills has that name for a reason. Was I a male between the ages of 30-40? Not much I can do about that, but yes, check.
I was pretty bummed. I couldn't join my friends to walk that weekend, and more than that, everything I had read said this injury was hard to recover from due to lack of bloodflow in that area. Some people were out weeks, even months. Of course the key to healing was RICE - rest, ice, compression, elevation, with the first two being most important. But how could I rest with a half marathon coming up in just a few weeks? The truth was, I didn't have a choice. Not much chance of completing a half marathon if I could barely walk. It got a little better throughout the week, but even after several days, it still hurt a lot. I stayed off of it as much as possible, iced it frequently, did some stretching exercises, all of which helped, but didn't last for very long. My saving grace, if you wanna call it that, was getting a stomach virus that put me in bed for 24hrs. My foot healed more in that day than it had in a week. When I recovered from that brief illness, I found that I could take a normal step. It still hurt, but I could follow through completely.
Side note: I have very flat feet. I run in Brooks Beast shoes, designed for heavier runners with flat feet to help with over-pronation. I thought with these shoes, I no longer needed my custom orthopedic inserts. I was wrong. I added them back into the Beasts, which changed the way my foot landed for the better. I also got two ankle braces to protect both Achilles tendons, and a knee brace for my right knee which was bothering me a little. By the time race day came this past Sunday, I felt like the 6 million dollar man wearing all of my protective gear.
starting line
I really wanted to be at 100% on the day of the half marathon. I wasn't. I wasn't comfortable taking as long a stride as I had before getting hurt, so I wasn't as fast (and I wasn't very fast before). Also, because of the injury, it had been four weeks since I had done a run over 5 miles in length. From everything I read, this isn't a huge deal for experienced runners who have trained for years, but for newbies, conditioning deteriorates more rapidly with several weeks off.
Apparently there are a lot of crazy people in Big D
This race was the largest attended one I have participated in. There were 16 corrals, ordered by speed so that the rabbits don't overrun the turtles. As a turtle in corral #14, we were released nearly 25 minutes after the official race start, but our chip times would still be accurate. Finally our turn came, and I felt pretty good at first. I had a decent 5mph pace going; foot and knee felt good. Still felt pretty good at the 10k mark, but I was starting to tire out. Most of the first several miles were uphill, and my pace was going downhill fast.
so true
Before getting hurt, I thought I might finish the race in under three hours. That was my goal. I knew that wasn't going to happen when I hit a wall between miles eight and nine. I really wished I was done. Miles 10-13, I was running about as fast as most people were walking.
But I finished. And I never
stopped
running.
finisher's bling
I thought I would be emotional crossing the finish line. Before the race, I envisioned finishing the race, arms in the air in cheesy yet epic Rocky fashion. Most of my ending iPod playlist are from those films, which always inspire me. In my runs before, I sped up when these tracks came on, but in this race, I think they allowed me to just keep going. I was physically and mentally spent. There was no arm waving at the end, just a feeling of relief that I could finally stop running, even knowing that when I did, I would be so sore.
Three days later, I'm still sore, though not as. It seems a surreal experience, one that I'm still not sure I believe I did, or that I could do. When I started my weight loss journey, this was never on my bucket list to accomplish. A year ago, I had no dream of becoming a runner, and that's still the case, though I guess it's hard not to claim to be one now. I have no desire right now to do another race of this distance, or anything longer. Honestly, the last four miles were no longer fun for me.
The idea that I never have to do another one if I don't wanna :)
But no one can take away from me that I did this one, and did it without stopping. I was upset that I wasn't in perfect shape (a relative term LOL) to do this race, but the fact that I finished it in less than great condition makes this even sweeter. It's nice to know that we can accomplish great things even when we aren't feeling the greatest ourselves.
Because that's life.
PS: It was pretty sweet going into work Monday morning, barely able to move, and seeing this in front of my computer monitor. #awesomecoworkers
