False Start

Right about the time I first started running half marathons in 2007, I stumbled upon the Nike Women's Marathon page. I read all about how the valiant women (and men) who finish the entire marathon (all 26.2 MILES) are presented Tiffany's finisher necklaces by San Francisco Firemen who donned tuxedos.

Firemen. In tuxedos. Handing out Tiffany Necklaces.

WOO HOO!

At the time, I could only run half-marathons at the measly pace of 15:30ish minutes per mile... on a flat course. I would need to run twice that, by at least one and a half minutes faster each mile on rolling hills to hope to become a Nike Women's Marathon finisher.

At the time, I also tipped the scale at nearly 190 pounds, didn't actually train for the half marathon except for shopping for a cute outfit in which to run, and finished each half marathon using mostly sheer belief I could finish since I didn't drop dead at the last half marathon.

One bad relationship later, I decided to get it together and get fit. I ran, lifted, and stair climbed my way to being the fittest I'd ever been. 125 pounds, visible muscles on my arms, and calves I could be proud of! I still hadn't actually done a training program, but because I was running regularly, I was confident that I was going to destroy my PR for the half marathon in the end of Spring, 2010, at the Orange County Half Marathon! I could feel it! My PR at that point was 2:58 and change for the 13.1 miles at the weight of 169 pounds. I could beat that in my sleep now that I weighed nearly 45 pounds less! The goal was to beat my ex-boyfriend's half marathon time of 2:40 (yes, he didn't train either.)

A week before the race, on a casual run, I felt a twinge in my left knee, outside. I thought it would go away after I warm up, but every steady mile it go worse, and worse... by mile 5 I was walking, tears clouding my eyes because of the pain and anger that I managed to hurt myself one freaking week before my cathartic half marathon where I would leave my ex-boyfriend's time in the dust. Would I even be able to finish the race?
I rested the entire week, did not exercise at all except to use my arms to massage my knee into submission.

The race started okay. A coworker and friend Sandy ran the first part of the race close by with the 2:15 pace group. We wanted to finish around 2:15 and we knew it was within both of our reach, having ran a 12 miler together previously at around the right pace. Things started to go wrong for me early on. Mile one I tripped on uneven gravel and met asphalt. Luckily my sturdy Garmin watch took the brunt of the blow and kept on ticking as the runner behind me helped me up. Luck only held up until mile 3, when my knee (later I found out it was my IT band) made me slow down, stop, walk, limp around for awhile. A racer stopped his run to hand me a packet of salt, thinking I was suffering from electrolyte imbalance. My pace slowed and now I was not so sure I could even beat my old time.

Then I remembered a different coworker finished a race sideways to avoid bending her bad knee. I limped/jogged miles 4-10 already. I really had nothing to lose... so I finished the race sideways, running the last 3 miles at near the pace I wanted. I finished 2:36. Good enough...

But this race set me back an entire two months. For two months the IT band would not let me run, reminding me that I abused it at the last half marathon. I had to settle for cross training for two months, looking at the calendar nervously since the drop dead date to start training for the 2010 Long Beach Marathon was the last week of June. I took a friend's advice and purchased some new shoes to help prevent the recurrence the IT band problem.

July 2010, I started the marathon training program. Two months on I did the 2010 Disneyland Half Marathon, smashing my PR with a 2:11, a 10 minute per mile pace. I kept on the training and made it to the 2010 Long Beach Marathon, where my running "career" derailed on a chance meeting with a rock at mile 16. I was not paying attention, and stepped on a rock as we went down one of the drives through the Long Beach State University, tweaked my ankle in a strange way. It sort of hurt, but it wasn't the end of the universe. I slowed down noticeably from my 10:30 run/walk pace to closer to 11:30. I wanted to finish, and short of not even being able to crawl, I was going to finish. I finished the race, at 4:48:36 (Good enough to finish NWM!), but much like with the Orange County Half Marathon, there was a price to pay.

Since the marathon in October 2010, I could not run without pain. I rested, got better, ran, got worse, felt bad. The cycle continued. There was even a half marathon in February of 2011 where I paced my friend to her first finish, but the pain was always there. After the pain returned full force the third week of training for the 2011 Orange County Half Marathon, I finally saw a podiatrist in April. He suspected a cuboid fracture and suggested an MRI.

Meanwhile, I entered the lottery for the 2011 Nike Women's Marathon, hoping my foot wasn't really terribly injured. Last week of April I found out I won a slot in the lottery for the Nike Women's Marathon 2011. I was ecstatic! Now to see about the foot...

MRI came back in May. Diagnosis: Cuboid fracture. I'd been bloody walking around on a broken foot (but doctor, it didn't hurt that bad! How could it be broken?!) for SIX months. Solution: Walking Boot 4 weeks. I asked the doctor about the NWM in October, he told me that's plenty of time. I nervously mentioned the training would start in end of June, he said it would be fine.

So for 4 weeks I did nothing. Waiting for my foot to catch up with the rest of me and be healed already. Come on, foot! Boot came off after 4 weeks and I was getting different sensations in my foot. Still sometimes cold, and still sometimes hurts...

I went back to the doctor after 2 weeks post boot and it did not look good. He's worried I'm still getting pains, no matter how infrequent. Insisted no fitness walking for three weeks when he will check up on me. He said if things did not go well, it's back in the boot I go. As things were, my first two weeks of marathon training for the Nike Women's Marathon is already scratched. I could recumbent bike, maybe 10 minutes of elliptical machine, and water run if I bought some special padded "reef shoes".

I went to the beach where I used to run during my marathon training and sat down to stare at the ocean for awhile. Then wandered around a street fair for a bit when I realized my foot was hurting worse. I was careless, stupid, and over exerted it. Did I break it some more? What should I do?  I limped back to my car.

I went and bought some reef shoes, went home, and put my boot back on. I decided it would stay on for another two weeks. Meanwhile, I would keep exercising on the recumbent bike to keep the calf relatively fit. I would take the boot off 1 week before I saw the doctor next.

This is quite the false start to my marathon training... but I was going to make it to Nike Women's Marathon or die trying!