Ouch?

0, 05mi

Start time: 10/12/05, 6:00pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 5 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 5:1
Average pace: 10:19min/mile

I was originally going to try and run yesterday, but starting yesterday afternoon I got a mystery ache in my left foot on the top of it, right near the ankle. It’s odd because I would understand if it’d started first thing Tuesday because with the new bed and all I slept uncomfortably Monday night (not being used to the new height and such). But no, it started Tuesday afternoon. I’m starting to think that Julie dropped a concrete block on my foot when I wasn’t paying attention.

The ache continued into today, but I decided to go running anyway with the understanding that if it bothered me I would call it quits. Sometimes I get aches if I don’t run for a while and I was hoping that was it. So, Mark and I headed out into a chilly, overcast, always-threatening-to-rain sort of day. My original plan was to just take off my glasses before running in case it rained, but after about ten steps I decided Plan B was the new course of action and put on a hat instead. I wish I’d dug out my long-sleeve running shirts, it was a bit brisk out. Any doubts I had about buying a new running jacket from the MCM this year have been dashed; I was going to ask for one for Christmas but now I’m thinking I’ll want it before then and should just buy it myself.

Anyway, we talked some more about potential race plans; Mark’s going to run the Frederick Marathon again the last weekend of April, which is a real possibility. Alternately I might just stick with some shorter races and maybe a half marathon in there somewhere. It’s all still very nebulous and up in the air, to be honest. Adding to the confusion, I’d finally decided that crowds (with the 12,000 fastest runners in the first wave half an hour ahead of everyone else) probably wouldn’t be a problem so if weather cooperated (ha ha) I wouldn’t need the Philadelphia Marathon as a back-up plan… except it turns out when Julie kicked the ottoman on Tuesday of last week, she did indeed break her little toe. Whoops. The podiatrist said that she can still run MCM on the 30th if she doesn’t mind the pain. So now I’m thinking that Philadelphia may still end up being back on depending on how she’s feeling, because if it hurts too much at that point I’ll run Philadelphia with her (since it’s three weeks later and by then it should be entirely healed).

Decisions, decisions.

Oh yeah, the ache is now almost entirely gone so I’m hoping it was just having a whiny foot that wanted to go running. Pfft.

4 thoughts on “Ouch?”

  1. Are you going to run to run with Julie with her broken toe? I hate to think that her injury would hinder you for a PR time. But as I learned in Top Gun, “You NEVER EVER leave your wingman”

    I would suggest that you work on your half marathons in the spring. You have made some great strides in getting faster, that you can really go for a good half-marathon time and it would be a great way to keep your base for a fall marathon, perhaps a smaller marathon (Richmond) where you wouldn’t have a lot of traffic to contend with for say a 4:30 marathon or better.

    As for your foot… did you have new socks or tie your shoe differently, tightly? Could just be age 😉

    1. Now you see, conversely, our rallying cry is always “You have to run your own marathon.” Knowing Julie she may just tough it out and still do outstanding. But we have actually abandoned parted with each other during marathons. In 2001 I tried to shake her at mile 23 but she caught back up a mile later once I saw she was hot on my heels. In 2003 I was having a bad race and she just started pulling ahead at mile 12 and that was that.

      Right now everything is just getting played by ear; for all I know on marathon day Julie’s toe will be feeling great, or conversely she may have to decide to bag on MCM entirely and focus on Philadelphia. I do know that if she runs it that I’ll get yelled at if I hold back on her account (and the converse is true of course). I think I will probably end up finishing with our running buddy Mark (we’ve been doing the same pace at speed training while Julie’s 30sec slower per mile), but my crystal ball has lied many times before.

      I wince every time I look at my one and only half marathon time (also in 2003, aka Greg’s Year Of Doing Everything Wrong In Running) so there’s a real allure of that.

      1. Isn’t that the great thing about the marathon… you train at a certain speed for 16+ weeks but you never know what you are going to get!

        You got to work on that half marathon time of 3:14… I am thinking closer to 2:11

Comments are closed.