A PR and a Fractured Foot

I ran the Pengelly Single Dip last year and it reminded me to be grateful to this sport I love so much and for my ability to participate and endure it.  I remember getting to the race and thinking I didn't quite fit in with the other athletes.  It was like when I first started running and felt like an imposter.  But I found my zone and it became my favorite race of 2013.

This year I was excited rather than nervous for the race.  I'd made the route one of my regulars and I knew I could run it strong.

We started off for the base of Mt. Sentinel and slogged up the side of the mountain, already feeling the heat of the day (my nemesis).  I took it slow until I made it down the fire road.  Remember running around as a kid, those times when you just went as fast as you could?  As I came around a turn, I decided to do that.  I just wanted to have fun, so I stopped pacing and ran as fast as I could down the trail.

I passed people, jumped over the dips in the trail, and had a blast.  I let go of all the training and seriousness of trying to maintain X minutes per mile.  I slowed down again once I reached the road, but for those few minutes on the mountain I felt free.

Sam met me at the finish and we watched the Douple Dip finishers and sat in the grass.  I checked my time and saw that I had PRd.  It felt pretty damn good.

Pengelly Single Dip 2014

A little over a week later, I fractured my foot.

I woke up that morning and my foot felt sore, but it felt like the regular soreness of marathon training.  I figured it would fade like the other various kinks do once you start your day.

When Sam and I started, it was drizzling, which was a good thing.  Without having to deal with the heat, the run should have gone mostly smoothly.  A few miles in, I told Sam I was uncomfortable.  I adjusted my stride and tried to take it slow and steady.  It started to rain harder, but I like running in the rain.  My foot still hurt.

At 16 miles in, I had to stop.  I stretched my foot out and tried to put on a brave face.  I told Sam it felt like if I were to take off my shoe and sock, my foot would be black and blue.  But, yes I was fine and yes I wanted to keep going. 

At 17 miles in, I had to stop again.  I'm not a person that cries when I get hurt, I'm more of a suck it up type.  So, I stood there with Sam in the rain and held back tears.  He asked me what I wanted to do and I said that I didn't know, that I wanted to keep going, maybe.  I told him I didn't feel rational.  Could he just decide and I'd do what he said?  He said let's quit and I said two more miles.  Like it would resolve itself in that distance.

So we did two more miles and went home.  When I took off my shoe, my foot was red and swollen.  I couldn't even touch it to the ground, it hurt so bad.  We iced it and I felt stupid, but I cried.

I hoped it was minor and would heal on it's own, but after two weeks of limping around, it didn't.  I went to a specialist, they took x-rays, and told me that it was a stress fracture.  Goodbye first marathon, hello ugly black shoe.

My new nemesis

At the moment, I'm mid-way through the healing process.  I haven't run in almost a month and I'm ready to pull my hair out.  My foot doesn't hurt anymore, but I know it's still healing.  And the fear of re-injuring it worse is enough to keep me out of my running shoes.  Sam and I go on short walks and we kayak and try to stay active, but it's not the same. 

It made me realize something - I'm not, and never was, an imposter.  My race times never mattered.  I woke up before dawn, ate the bagels, and put in the miles just like other runners.  And I miss it.

But watch for the neon shoes, I'll be back soon. 

Running on the Fly

Do you have one of those runner friends that can talk about running all day?  Is that person possibly me?  I promise when I'm talking about knee anatomy and injury prevention, I'm not trying to be a smarty pants.  But if you ask a question, I can and will ramble on forever.

When I was a newbie to the sport, I had a lot of questions and I Googled a lot of things.  I asked the kind people at The Runner's Edge here in Missoula and the very limited number of people I knew that also ran.

And now I know some stuff and I want to share a bit of the running dictionary I've pulled together along the way.

Running on the Fly Part Two: Terms that make you go, huh?

5K - Any race that equals 3.1 miles.  K stands for kilometer, which is 1,000 meters.

10K - Any race that equals 6.2 miles.

Bonk - Basically, it's when you feel like you're gonna die if you go any further.  It happens when your body has run out of glycogen to burn.  Instead, it looks to fat and protein, but converting that to energy takes longer and gives you that I'm-going-to-fall-down feeling.  Carbs are a runner's friend!

Chip time vs gun time - Your chip is a little timing device set with your specific info.  You attach it to your shoe and it records the time you cross the starting and finishing line.  The gun time is the time the race starts.  If you've ever done a race with a lot of people, you know that you don't necessarily cross the starting line in the same second the gun goes off.  Chip time can be a few seconds to a few minutes faster than your gun time.

Fartlek - A form of training where you mix slow running with fast bursts of speed for any distance you'd like.  And yes, it's pronounced the way it looks.

Half marathon - Any race that equals 13.1 miles.

Lactic acid - You know how sometimes the day after hard exercise, you don't want to move because it hurts so bad?  It's because of lactic acid.  It builds up in your muscles when there is an incomplete breakdown of glucose during exercise.

LSD - Not the drug.  It means long, slow distance.  It's where you do a long run/race at a slower pace, can be helpful for endurance.

Marathon - Any race that equals 26.2 miles.

PR - Personal record.

Shin splints - Pain in the length of your shin, can be caused by running on hard surfaces.  Rest and/or cross training for a few days is usually a good idea if you have shin splints.  If the pain is severe or doesn't go away, see a doctor!

Split time - How long it takes you to run a certain distance over the course of a longer run.  For example, my last split at mile three of a five mile run was 25 minutes.

Ultra - Any race that is longer than a marathon.

VO2 max - The maximum amount of oxygen your body can take in and use.

I feel like I should be wearing my glasses.  Anyway, I hope that was helpful and I swear I didn't make anything up!

Bad Days Make for Great Races

My best run was the 2012 Riverbank Run 5K.  It wasn't the best because I was in the zone, or had a good night's sleep the night before.

It was my best run for one reason - I was pissed the hell off. 

The first half of 2012 was full of ups and downs in my love life, and the week of the Riverbank Run was no different.  I was dating someone that I liked very much.  I wanted to be his girlfriend.  At the very least, I was hoping we were headed in that direction.*

*side note: Are these really the stages of dating for the new millennium: hooking up, casual dating, dating, and official-exclusive-dating?  It's exhausting.  And there are probably like, 27 stops in between that I don't even know about.

Anyway, we had the relationship talk.  During which, the guy I really wanted to be my boyfriend said this: "I can't say that I can be exclusive with you, what if I go out tomorrow and meet the love of my life?"

That propelled me to my current 5K PR.

A bad mood can't compete with a runner's high and a new PR.

It was cold and drizzly that day, which suited me fine.  There were hundreds of people in the race and I felt like I had road rage.

In retrospect, it's silly.  This guy was obviously not right for me.  But at the time I was hurt by the statement, so I took it out on the course.  And the rage-running worked.

I'm running this race again in a month.  This time, I'm hoping for better weather and a better mood.  And, just maybe, a happier PR.

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Thanks to MissZippy for this blog idea!  See her best run recap and many more at this link:

What's your recent #bestrun?

The Athletic Evolution of Ashley

I signed up for my first race of 2013, Run for the Luck of It, a very fun, very green, St. Patrick's Day 5K.  I like to use it as a base time because it coincides nicely with the beginning of my half marathon training.  I do another 5K in late April and I love seeing the seconds or minutes shaved off that base time as my training progresses.

Anyway, the first time I ever ran the St. Pat's race, I didn't run, I walked.  It took something like 45 minutes.  I ran the last 50'ish yards to make it look like I wasn't taking an early spring stroll through the course.

I wanted to be a runner, but I felt like an imposter.  I would go out and try a mile or two and I couldn't catch my breath, my legs were stiff and my sides cramped.  Other runners, better runners, blurred by in their tights and shirts from marathons they completed while I stood, hacking and coughing in heavy sweats.

My Wii Fit (I type this with no irony whatsoever) told me I was overweight in its high pitched little robot voice.  I'd sigh and think, yeah, I'm freaking aware of the situation.  I wasn't hugely overweight, but I was bigger than I'd ever been and unhappy.

 

That's me on the right with the glasses.  I was the funny, smart one.  I felt like the one the guys walked past to get to my beautiful best friends.

Run for the Luck of It 2011

Not long after the race I walked instead of ran, my life changed.  I started living alone for the first time in my life and I was lonely.  I'd lost friends to distance and the end of a long term relationship.

What I did have were an old pair of running shoes and slightly flooded running pants.  I had nothing to do, so I ran.  I mapped out a 3 mile loop and pushed myself through it.  It hurt, so the next day I did it again.

I started running two or three times a week at that distance.  It started to hurt less, or maybe it hurt the same but I started to like it.  I mapped out a 5 mile loop and started doing that too. 

In a small burst of body confidence, I bought running tights, a proper sports bra, and a running shirt.  But I didn't really care about my weight or how I looked in the new clothes.  In fact, that whole year I was weighed three times, twice by doctors and once by myself to make sure the doctors were right.

I started using terms like cross training and negative split times.  I did yoga in my apartment on Sunday mornings.  I started feeling strong.

Run for the Luck of It 2012, with Jim.  He's faster than everyone.

In 2012, I ran Run for the Luck of It in 28 minutes, 14 seconds. A month later, I ran another 5K in 27 minutes, 30 seconds, a PR for me.

I started hiking and running on trails when the weather was nice.  I kept a promise to myself and signed up for my first half marathon.  It made me nervous, terrified actually.  I started thinking those imposter thoughts again.  I didn't set any time goals, I just wanted to finish.  I set up a training schedule and stuck to it, mostly out of fear of what would happen if I didn't.

Hiking in Missoula, MT 2012.  Two months before my first half marathon.

My longs runs got longer.  One afternoon, I ran 10 miles in the pouring rain and it occurred to me - I'm a runner because I run.  People weren't looking at me and saying, hey, what are you doing out here with us?  The other runners were nice, most of them smiled and waved hello.  I realized there was a lot of camaraderie to be had in a sport that was solitary by nature.

We runners are a strange bunch.  Unless we're one of the select few with major sponsors, we actually pay to do this.  We pay for the shoes and the races, the watches and sometimes, the trips to the physical therapist.

I don't know about everyone else, but I run because I have to.  I've learned more about myself by running than I have by doing anything else.  I learned that pushing forward starts with your mind, I learned to like the pain, to breathe.  I learned that bad days can be erased by great runs.  I learned that the silence on a good trail has a feel.  I learned what the words "dig deep" really mean and that this, this small part of my life so far, matters because it matters to me.

Missoula Marathon/Half Marathon 2012