Running Chick

Usually I look like I'm about to keel over, but these ones turned out pretty well. Here's a couple, the rest are in the gallery.

Gratuitous food picture! 

 

You just can’t beat the taste of food on a charcoal grill.

Gravel, giant long hill, gravel, long downhill, more gravel, beach sand, finish. That pretty much sums up this morning's race. I did a lot better than I was expecting myself to do. I was hoping to come in around 51 or 52 minutes and thanks to the last thee miles being downhill, I was able to crank out some really zippy miles and come in a smidge over 49 minutes.

Pre-race: I hung around and waited for the 2nd bus, which was running late. We got the the start at 8:58, the race was supposed to start at 9:00. No warm up for me! Mile 1 & 2: Gun went off, everybody jumped and some women screamed. Pretty funny. The first quarter-mile was on loose gravel. It was like running on marbles. Yuck. People were passing me left and right. I looked back after the turn onto pavement and there were two runners behind me and then I could see the walkers. I figured I was in for my first DFL finish, great. The first mile marker passed and I glanced at my watch and saw 10:08! The second mile was a long grind uphill. Man, that was unpleasant and I was significantly slower - 10:43. MEH. Mile 3 & 4: More freaking loose gravel for the next mile, but it was downhill so I was able to make up some of the time I lost on the uphill section. Then, we were on pavement and it was all downhill from here. I was feeling great and thanks to gravity, I started to pass people. Four people in total, actually. I purposely decided not to show the pace on my Garmin because all I end up doing is obsessing about it, so I didn't realize that I ran this mile in 9:11 until I downloaded it when I got home. Mile 5: I was seriously zeroing in on a 48-ish minute 5 miler until this mile. Part pavement, part gravel and BEACH SAND. What the hell, were they trying to kill us? I barely maintained my pace and was gasping and wheezing and feeling a bit pukey when I crossed the finish line. Man, my finishing photos are going look so hot! I stumbled past Josh who said "Congratulations!" to which I replied "I think I'm going to puke." Folks, the romance is still there! In all, it was a fun, local race. I'll totally do it again next year. Except I'll train more. And do more hills. Go Red Wings!

Thanks to these.. causing this...

I now have a case of Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome. Podiatrist said I'm "textbook". Yay.

My MTSS is characterized by pain and tenderness in the inside leg above my ankle. As an added bonus, I have some swelling too. I usually have pain when I start out running, then it goes away after about 15 minutes only to flare up about an hour after I'm done. The tenderness is always there, but the pain typically goes away the next day. So, basically my ankles roll inward excessively putting stress on the muscles and tendons that run up the inside of my leg causing pain & swelling.

Podiatrist says "We can fix you".

These little little plaster slippers get shipped off to some place in New York where goo gets poured into them to make a cast of my foot. My custom orthotics get made from those casts.

They should be here in three weeks.  Then I have a two week adjustment period where I’ll wear them walking around (at work, etc), but not running.  Then, RUN!

In the meantime, Podiatrist put me on some serious anti-inflammatory drugs to get the swelling down and and make my inflamed tendons happier.  I can still run during this period, I just have to take it easy.

Oh, and the cost of getting me running pain-free?  Just under $550.  They’d better come with a money-back guarantee.