Tag Archives: injury

Race Report – Myrtle Beach Mini Marathon

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It was truly a game time decision for me to run this race this morning. As the corrals started shifting forward, waiting for the starting gun, I asked J for the car key, because I was not sure I would make it a tenth of a mile out of the mall parking lot. I started off running, no interval timer, just going until I needed to walk. Amy and J started off walking and when they caught up to me, J pointed out another place I could turn around and come back if needed.

Once I started moving, and I didn’t feel sick, and my foot pain was not excruciating, I decided I would pace with Amy and J for a mile or two to get ahead of the time and then I could run my own pace after that. Soon after the first water stop, I decided to let them go on – I knew Amy wanted to try to set a Personal Record (PR) today and J was going to pace her. I went ahead and set my interval timer to :20/:50 and tried to find my own rhythm. I put in an earbud, found some tunes, and ran my race.

It was a great morning! I had a smile on my face for most of the miles and really just enjoyed running and the scenery around me. I may have even jumped for joy a bit when the ocean came into view around mile 7.5…ok, I did jump for joy when I saw the ocean. No one around me seemed to share my enthusiasm, but that was ok, I was having a great time! The entire race was a great experience with great support and lots of water stops, and I hope to do this one again next year.

Amy did get her PR by four minutes, and Mel and Jamie also PR’d! As to my goal to just go as far as I could, whether I finished or not – not only did I finish, but I also got a 16 minute PR! Made all the sweeter by having my friends and family waiting for me at the finish line (thank you!!)

Bad news/good news – my feet do hurt, but I’ve been icing them and they don’t seem to be any worse than after a short 2 mile run, and definitely not as bad as 2 months ago. I will see how recovery goes this week and I’ll have a better idea of what I’m in for with next month’s races.

    

 

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Pre Race Report – Myrtle Beach Mini Marathon

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Ok I know the first question is likely, what’s a Mini Marathon? In this case, it is a half marathon. It’s a fairly flat and the last few miles are very scenic – running right along the ocean and finishing on the boardwalk!

We’ve got quite the crew here for this race weekend! The best brother in the world picked me up this morning so that I could rest my foot today, and the best sister in be world will be taking me home tomorrow since J will only be in town long enough to sleep tonight and run tomorrow. Goose’s girlfriend Mel drove up from Florida to run her first half marathon. Sue and Kate also drove up from Florida to cheer with the best mom in the world, who comes out to cheer us kids on whenever she can! It was great to get everyone together for dinner along with one of my friends from high school, Jen, and her husband, Jamie – we still run in the same circles! We missed J and Amy at dinner, because they have to work late and won’t be here until midnight and 1:30am

So about the race – I walked this race last year as I was coming off of a hip injury. This year I’ve been dealing with PF as well as some other intermittent issues. I really do not know at this time of writing (8:45p on Saturday, race day eve) whether or not I will be starting this race tomorrow. I will listen to my body and see how I am feeling in the morning.

  

Update

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I know it’s been a while since you’ve heard from me. I’ve been working on old race recaps and rehabbing my feet. I’ve gone out for a couple of runs and gone back to the gym to test my foot out and so far it seems to be improving. Slowly, mind you, but steps in the right direction. I am still nervous about my upcoming races, as I’m not sure how much running I’ll actually be able to do without excruciating pain, but what I’ve noticed is that once the excruciating pain starts it does not matter what I do, the pain will still be there, so I need to find a happy medium before I get to that level of pain.

I also have concerns about my recovery time between the Wine and Dine half and the Infinity Gauntlet Challenge. If I only had to do one of the races over the two weekends I probably wouldn’t feel as overwhelmed as I feel right now. Beyond that I also have the full marathon coming up in January. I am very nervous about this race even though I have already completed the distance twice and near the distance once before that. I tend to think of myself as having a very high threshold for pain, however this pain is almost intolerable when it’s as bad as it has gotten in the past, and every step feels like there’s a nail being driven into the bottom of my foot.

          
I am on my way to the gym and to run now so we will see how it goes.  

A Diagnosis

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On my last long run, on August 22, I started developing pain in my right foot a couple of miles into the run. The pain only got worse and by the time I got home, it was excruciating. I could barely tolerate any weight on the foot. Fortunately, my plans for the rest of the weekend allowed me to rest and stay off of my foot for the most part, and by the middle of the week, the pain eased up a bit. J told me I should take some time off and rest until I was pain-free. I bought a couple of night splints and tried to sleep with those (nearly impossible), and I iced and stretched my feet each night. Three weeks later, I was still in a fair amount of pain, and a dear friend encouraged me to see a doctor.

So, after a full month of not running, to rest my feet, I finally went to the doctor yesterday. I saw a foot and ankle specialist. X-rays confirmed no stress fractures, no arthritis, and no heel spurs (yay, all good news!). However, I have Plantar Fasciitis (PF), which consists of micro-tears in the tendons running along the bottoms of my feet. He gave me a list of therapies and stretches to do on a several times daily basis and hopefully these will help. He also has me wearing little arch sleeves on both feet that should help (he swears by them). I am looking at 3 to 18 months for recovery – let’s hope it is closer to the 3 month time frame.

The best part (crazily enough) – he told me to start running again. I am not sure how I am going to run with this burning pain in my foot, but I’m going to give it a try tonight and see how it goes.