Please forgive the lengthiness of this post, I figured it might be useful to catch everyone up on my recent running experiences before I start my Boston training. Enjoy 🙂
Earlier this summer I began training for my second full marathon, the Chicago Marathon. I have a small bucket list of races that I want to run at least once in my life and Chicago is near the top of it (Boston is the TOP of the list). I was very excited to start training for a marathon again and to improve on my PR from the 2014 Marine Corps marathon of 4:25. I started training early and took my time building mileage; I was feeling great going in to my peak weeks: 16, 18, 20, 12, 20.
In the summer my favorite spot to run is the bike path on Cape Cod; each weekend without fail I convinced Jack we should go down on Sunday so I could complete my long run along the trail. The morning of the 16 miler was no different; I woke up early, had a quick snack and headed out on the road. Jack and my mom planned to meet me at mile 8 so they could refill my water and give me more Gu. I remember feeling great when I saw them and continuing my run. Around mile 14 or so I felt a slight pain in my left foot but did not think too much of it. I ended up finishing the run in a PR time for 16 miles, averaging 9:34 per mile.
I didn’t start feeling the severe pain until the next morning, when I went to get out of bed and fell over because of the pain. Unfortunately, this was a familiar pain for me; after the Marine Corps Marathon I wound up in a boot for six weeks from tendonitis. Luckily I had the week off from work so I was able to lie on the couch and ice my foot all day while trying to make a doctor’s appointment. I saw the doctor two days later and sure enough, my tendonitis was back and the boot was on for at least two weeks.
This was devastating news to me as it meant I would have to miss my 18 and 20 milers. I was in denial of the severity of the injury and was more focused on trying to rest up and still race. I begrudgingly put my boot on and headed to Long Island for a fun weekend to celebrate the wedding of two of our close friends, Melissa and Cory. I danced the night away, despite the boot and was generally in pretty good spirits.
When we got home, I stupidly tried to run again before I was cleared. I barely made it a mile before I had to stop because of the pain. That night I made the difficult decision to defer the Chicago Marathon until 2015 and focus on getting better. I have been out of the boot now for about a month and am finally starting to feel like myself again.
Slowly I am working myself back into shape (little runs and cross training) so that I am 100% healthy for my Boston training in December. On that note I should probably get to the last piece of this post which is Fall races! I have some fun ones coming up… I always find it is easier to train when I have something fun to look forward to. The First race on the horizon is the Chilly Half Marathon which is in Newton in early November, then another half in December called the Frosty Half. I’m looking in to adding a third called the Santa Shuffle in Portland Maine later in November but we’ll have to see!
Any other Fall race recommendations?
Dana Runs Boston 