On October 7th, I ran in a 10 mile road race held in Shelby Forest. It was part of a series of 10 road races I have done for the last five years. Even though I hadn't trained enough, I had an excellent race and finished strong. The next day I noticed a sharp pain in my right foot. I continued to train and race for the next month. The pain continued to aggravate me and I had to reduce my mileage in order to keep training for my remaining races. On November 4th, I ran the first of two half-marathon races scheduled for that month. At just after the 5 mile mark I stepped on a big rock with my right foot and agonizing pain shot through my whole leg. I finished the race with a decent time, but had to stop training. Two weeks later, I ran the second half-marathon and was in great pain for the entire race, but I finished. That was the end of my race season. I couldn't participate in the St. Jude Half Marathon/Marathon December 1st as I had planned and it was the first one I had missed in 6 years. It was the biggest non geocaching-related disappointment of the year for me and I felt awful for quite a while.
Today I ran for the first time in 7 weeks. It was tough going since I've lost a lot of my conditioning as well as gained a few pounds. I have a lot of work to do since I plan to race a lot more this year than I have in the past. I plan to geocache on the run a lot more this year particularly in East Memphis and Collierville to pick up many of the remaining caches I have in those areas. As a bit of added incentive, I've decided not to cut my hair or shave my beard until I lose 15 pounds. I already look a bit shaggy so I need to get busy!
No comments:
Post a Comment