Angry and Frustrated

Okay, so its like this...I am angry and frustrated. Why you may ask? Well, quite frankly its because my left ankle is in a perpetual state of pain. Sure there are good days and then there are days like today which are absolutely intolerable. Now, I know you may be thinking that I should have trained better or harder or whatever, but that isn't the problem. I always have had a hurt ankle and its in part because I overpronate a lot and I mean A LOT! However, I blame one person, my 2nd grade gym teacher. Now I am almost 29 and it may seem to most a little unreasonable to still be harboring a grudge against someone from my elementary school years, but really a lot of the problems I have are because of her. At least I think so, but you be the judge.

In 2nd grade at St. Johns (yes, I was in private school for a brief stint) the new gym teacher had this tremendously brilliant idea to tie something that was the equivalent in size, look, and feel of shotput to the end of a rope. Now we were supposed to stand in a circle and jump over the rope when it came to us, she would lift it up off the ground periodically. The idea was if you couldn't jump over it, then you were out. I was a girly girl so I was no stranger to these types of games. In the jump rope world that game is called Helicopter Helicopter, except a 6 year old girl is smart enough not to put a wrecking ball at the end of their jump rope. Why? Because a 6 year old girl knows that it could hurt someone. Its a shame that this woman didn't have the reasoning capability that a 6 year old has, otherwise this tale might have a different ending. Well, I am sure you can see how this played out in gym class one day. She lifted the rope, I didn't jump high enough, shotput-ish thing gets wrapped around my ankle. But the story doesn't end there, while I am trying to unwrap the contraption from around my left ankle, she yanks. I fall, then she continues to yank while yelling at me to hurry up. Now I wasn't dragged across the floor, but it was enough to do some damage. After gym class, I had trouble walking. I even told my mom when she came to pick me up from school that my ankle was really bothering me. I had on knee socks so you couldn't see how bad it was, and she told me to stop being a drama queen (in all fairness I used to pretend to be sick a lot, my mom wasn't being callous). It wasn't until I got home and changed into my normal clothes that my mom saw how swollen my ankle had become, it was various shades of black and blue. To give you an idea my ankle was the size of a softball. I went to the emergency room where I was put into a cast for about 2 months because of a dislocated ankle. My parents did go into school to find out what happened, and of course the teacher called me a liar and said I was just naturally clumsy. However, my classmates had a different story to tell. Of course, my parents are nice people and never sued the school or anything, and that woman kept her job.

 So really the only one who truly suffered in the exchange was me, I got the cast and now I deal with a nagging pain almost every time I run. I am sure there are other factors that may contribute to ankle pain, but I always find it interesting that the left ankle is the one that really bothers me and that's the dislocated ankle from my childhood. So there you have it, that's why I am angry and frustrated. I am sure I would have other issues, but the ankle thing really gets to me because I feel like it didn't have to be this way. But, what can you do except pop some advil, ice it, and hope for the best.

Well, Divas is next Sunday. I may check in before then, but if not I will be off resting my ankle because I want it to be as strong as possible for Sunday.

Until next time, happy running!

Slowly Getting Back Into Running

"There will be days when I don't know if I can run a marathon. There will be a lifetime knowing that I have."
                                                                                                                                      - Unknown

I came across this quote tonight and I feel like it really sums up how I feel. I didn't meet my original goal of running the Baltimore Marathon, as I have said, I hate running in the heat. So it made training pretty much insufferable. However, I remembered that I didn't mind running in the cold because it is easier for me to be motivated to run. But, despite me knowing that I can probably run the Shamrock Marathon, I am still nervous. There are days when I look at the countdown clock and I have a mini panic attack, and then I realize that if I train I have nothing to be nervous about. And, truthfully I will probably never run a marathon again. Its my 30s bucket list goal and I must accomplish this in March. I want to know that I have achieved a goal that I set for myself in high school. For years I have never thought I could do what I am currently doing, and yet here I am. I want that memory and I want to be a person who has completed a marathon!

So, I have started back up with my training. Over the past few weeks I have been increasing my mileage. A couple of weeks ago I was bouncing between 5 and 10 miles. This week I ran Saturday (6 miles), Sunday (2 miles), Monday (3 miles), and tonight (6 miles). I am still building up my stamina. My lack of training has caused me to take a while to warm-up my muscles. The good news is after about 2 miles my muscles warm-up enough that I can run a relatively flat course continuously at about a 4mph pace. I know that's not super fast, but its a start.  Consequently the Divas race that I am running next weekend is through Eisenhower Park and it is billed as a fast flat course. This makes me feel better since it is only 3.5 hours. I know if it isn't a hilly course I can run it fairly quickly. I have a 6 day turn around before I run Baltimore, but I have a 6 hour time limit there and I know for a fact that I will definitely not need that much time :-)

I decided that aside from a recovery run I am taking a week off before beginning full on marathon training. I actually I am going to start at about 10 miles and I think that is a good jumping off point since I will have completed two 13 mile races in a week. That means I will have about 6 months to get to the 26 miles, which I think is definitely doable. 

Oh, on a cool note. My friend Kathleen is not only coming to see me run the Shamrock Marathon, but she is going to run her 1st half marathon!!! I am so proud she is committing and trying something new. I also have my father-in-law, husband, bro-in-law, and his girlfriend running a the Headless Horseman 5k on Oct. 27th. Its going to be pretty cool! I am so glad I am making a positive impact on my friends and helping them discover a potential new hobby.

Until next time, happy running!!! 

The Color Run- Happiest 5k on the Planet

 Yesterday, my friend Ashley and I made the drive to Richmond, VA for the Color Run, and after the 5k today, we made our drive back home. Overall, it was a good experience and a lot of fun. It was Ashley's first 5k and the first time either of us had ever done anything like this. The only stipulations to the run were to wear a white shirt and to have a lot of fun.

Our day started with getting up around 6:45am, the Richmond Speedway was only 3 miles from our hotel so we thought we didn't need to leave until 7:30. We were wrong. We spent almost an hour in the car to go 3 miles, then we had to wait 40 minutes in line to get our bibs. Once we got our bibs we had to wait another 30 minutes to run. One thing I didn't realize was there were going to be over 8,000 participants. Its awesome to see, but man its a lot of humanity. Go figure the one thing I missed on the race packet was the number of participants. At one time, Ashley looked at me and told me that my hobby requires way to much patience from one person.  Around 9:45 we were able to start our race, but since it isn't a timed event it really didn't matter when we started. FYI it took us 46 minutes to run/walk the 5k. However, we stopped in a lot of the color stations and to take pictures throughout the race, so we probably could have run it quicker had we tried not to enjoy ourselves so much :-)

The race was cool, at every k there was a different color thrown on you. The first was yellow, then pink/red, blue, and orange. I was a little sad that no purple or green was thrown on us because I think it could have made the messiness stand out more! At one point, the pink station ran out of color so they let everyone just roll through the station. It was hilarious and so much fun! I took a lot of blue and orange to the face and hair. Right now I have a bright orange spot on my hair that may or may not wash out, but I am confident it will dissipate in a couple of days. They also gave us little baggies of color that we could throw. Ashley just covered me in the powder. My legs are currently pink and her hands are definitely red. The course took us all around the back part of the Richmond Super Speedway. It was a little hilly at times, so we did a run/walk approach.

What I learned about traveling out of town for a race: If you can, get there a day early for the packet pick up and to get a feel for how seriously crowded it could be. Unfortunately in this case, both of us worked and couldn't get there until the evening before and we missed the packet pick up. I also learned to leave for the race early. One problem with out of town races is that you don't really know where everything is and in this case you can also severely underestimate how bad traffic could be. Also, if your hotel doesn't have early checkout then take your stuff with you. We had to rush back to the hotel where we rinsed off quickly before heading home. But we definitely ran into some girls who got back after us and totally got locked out of their room.

Would I do a Color Run? Absolutely! There is something magically awesome about participating in an event where everyone is just there to have fun. When you are with over 8,000 people who are all there to have a good time, the excitement and happiness is infectious. The only stipulation is that I would run closer to home. Its a shame that they will not be hosting a run in the DC area next year :-( But I highly recommend participating in a Color Run. It truly lives up to its nickname as the Happiest 5k on the Planet. I even have takers for running with me next time it becomes available because of how awesome it is!

3 weeks until Divas! Can't wait and getting ready to run a long distance tomorrow! Until next time, happy running :-)

On the Road Again...

Next week officially starts my "running tour." I am excited because I get to run with my friend Ashley in Richmond for the Color Run! I can't wait to post pictures of that because it seems like it will be awesome. After that, I take a week off and just do a walk for FAAN, the Food Allergy and Anaphalaxis Network.  I have to walk for "my people," those with food allergies. For those of you that don't know, I suffer from a lot of severe food allergies and I have to be very careful about cross contamination or possibly consuming a food that I am allergic to. So I have taken up the cause of FAAN and I am trying (unsuccessfully I might add) to raise money for this organization. Once I finish with the walk I am off a week before I travel for my dueling half marathon week.

In October, I will run two half marathons in 6 days. I really haven't been training all that much. I did about a 5 mile run/walk last week and I am getting ready to go out and try to do 7-8miles shortly. I figured that if I can just get through the two halves that I can start my marathon training at 13 miles. After all, if I can do that twice in one week then I should have no problem doing it again in training. That should leave me plenty of time to get to the full 26.2 distance. Admittedly, I had a mini panic attack when I logged on to the Shamrock Marathon website and realized I only had 186 days left to train. That's 6 months, but still...

So October 6th its off to NY with my really good friend Annie and her crew for the Diva's Half (Happy Birthday to me :-D) and then running in Baltimore for the Half on the 13th. A week off then running in the Headless Horseman. I have two turkey trots, one the week before and one the day of Thanksgiving. Then, the Santa 5k in Frederick on Dec. 15th. I am thinking I might do the Jingle Bell Jog this year so I might throw that one in there.

For 2013, I am trying to decide on some races. After my marathon, I think that will be it for the extreme long distance running. I will have achieved what I set out to do, which is to complete a marathon by the time I am 30. But, I am going to focus on pushing myself to stay in shape by running the half marathons. To me, those races aren't that bad and the training effort is not as strict. My husband and I talked about traveling to Atlantic
City for the April Fool's Half Marathon. The medals are awesome and the shirts look cool too and I really want to race on the Boardwalk.  I definitely liked the Iron Girl and my husband wants to do the Frederick Half Marathon, so I am probably signing up for those as well. And of course, I will do my standard 5k races like the cupcake run, bear crawl, and the wild woman (I hope they have it again this year!). After all of the half marathons, I think my new goal will be to run around the entire track without walking at Pimilico. I never thought Pimilico would be my achilles heel or my arch nemesis, but despite how much fun it is that track really wears you down!

Well, there it is my race ramblings. Still looking for good or unique races on the East Coast that aren't difficult to travel to. The search continues...

Well getting ready to lace of my sneakers and run for a bit. Until next time, happy running!