Of injuries and baby-steps

Six months ago, after over a decade of being a competitive runner, I made my marathon debut. Coach Brad Hudson had prepped me to run a good time and hopefully take the win. I was ready to go make (personal) history.

I didn’t win.

I didn’t follow the directions.

I blew up.

I got a stress fracture.

But this isn’t the time to talk about that race. (Though my recap is as good as my race was bad, so read it if you haven’t!) Rather, this is the time to talk about injuries, time off, and bouncing back.

It took about a month to figure out that I had a sacral stress fracture, and a pretty bad one at that. You’d think I’d realize it was doctor time when I couldn’t put on my socks without sitting down, but hey, us runners are stubborn! When I got out of the MRI they asked if I had been hit by a car. That is not a good sign.

Our best guess of what happened: For ~10 days before the race my right big toe was acting up, an ingrown toenail or some such. Just something random. Realized I was slightly favoring my left side due to this, and just wasn't quite running evenly. Going into the race I figured this would lead to a more sore left glut or something, and that was just a necessary evil of bad timing. How wrong I was.

Fortunately, I had a couple great medical professionals in my corner. Richey Hansen, himself a former collegiate distance runner, has been my go-to guy since moving to Boulder, and helped push me in the right direction, both with getting me to have the imaging done and with necessary re-strengthening exercises. And Kristin Carpenter was uber-supportive while I transitioned from fighting to put on my socks, to aqua-jogging, to, and I hate to say this, run-walk. If you want to injure the ego of a competitive runner, make him run-walk.

But even when hurt, training doesn’t cease. Once I was allowed in the pool, you better believe I was in that goddamned pool, silly little floaty around my waist and all.  Same goes for the stationary bike, and for each hip/glut/whatever-strengthening workouts I was allowed to do in the gym.  Plus, I was fortunate enough for ElliptiGO to donate some sweet rides to us as I transitioned to light-weight-bearing exercises. It was great to meet up for some Hudson Elite practices again, even if they got to run and I just rode off.

Finally, on March 29^th, I got my first run back. Okay, “jog” is more accurate. But that first step was the first step towards fitness. And while I’m still far from where I was 6 months ago, I’m well on my way towards running fast once again.

So what’s next you ask? Sadly, I missed the majority of the track season, which is even more painful as I’m watching NCAA’s while writing this. So it’s back to the roads this fall, with the tentative plan to hit a fall half, hard.

How hard is hard? Well, Brad’s talking big, like sub-65 big, as he wants me to hit that Olympic Trials mark. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t an exciting thought, but right now, I can’t think about that. Right now, it’s all about putting my head down, and taking one step after another. Where will those steps end up taking me? I don’t know, but right now I’m just enjoying each step!