Well, I ended up staying off my ankle for over a week.
It got swollen and colorful as you saw, and wasn't very happy with me moving about much. I iced it a lot. After a couple of days, a dr. friend of mine suggested I switch to moist heat and massage the colorful bit upward, to encourage the pooled blood to get out of there. I followed the instructions and noticed it made a quick difference in the color of the area. The tenderness persisted though.
I showed up to my Monday outdoor game, geared up, and tried to run around a bit before the game... and realized very quickly nothing good was going to come of me playing the field. I could barely run! When I tried to kick the ball with my bad leg it hurt too much, and I ended up just nudging the ball gently in a general direction... and whimpering a bit. Not gonna happen.
Instead I ended up playing goalie for that game... as my goalie friend is also my indoor team's goalie when I sprained my ankle, and at roughly the same moment I hurt my ankle, he sprained his finger... and preferred not to keep for that monday outdoor game. He wanted to give his finger more time to heal. We swapped positions, but I told Marc (the goalie) he had to play like a girl. hehehe.
The game went ok. I made some saves and missed some great shots from the other team. We ended up losing by 1 pt, and I took full responsibility. I'm not a great goalie. heh.
After this, I made no attempt to play ultimate frisbee on Tuesday, nor indoor soccer on Thursday. My ankle was too tender. I was wondering how it'd hold up for the Cinco de Mayo run on Sunday though. I'd been registered for that 10K event since before Race for the Roses... so I was really hoping to be able to run that. Granted I hadn't actually EXERCISED at all since the soccer game I sprained my ankle in, but whatever.
This is how my ankle looked on Friday afternoon.
Saturday evening, I opted to drink loads of water and electrolytes instead of alcohol... just incase I'd be able to run on Sunday morning.
Sunday morning I woke up and poked at my ankle. The swelling was entirely gone, and most of the coloration was gone too. neat! I got up, got my running kit on, and headed to downtown portland for the race!
It was a smaller event. Probably the smallest organized race I've participated in actually. Nonetheless, they had a mariachi band there as well as several running gear booths, and a clothing check. I wasn't sure how to dress since the weather forecast called for sunshine and right about 50 degrees for the race (starting at 9am). There is a little rule about dressing for a run that says you should dress as if it's 20 degrees warmer outside than it is. You may be a touch uncomfortable at the beginning of the run, but once you are warmed up you'll be happy you dressed that way. When I laid out my clothes for Sunday morning, I kept saying to myself, "what would I wear in 70 degrees!?!" It had been SO DANG LONG since I've ran in nice weather, I had no idea what I'd wear actually.
Turned out it was a BEAUTIFUL day. I wore my capri-length running tights, with a pair of black running shorts over it for dignity... my ultimate frisbee jersey (since it's a technical T), and well.. I brought along my northface windwall vest, but I ended up deciding that was too much. I checked that at the clothes check before the race.
Here was the race route
As you can see, we started and ended at Salmon and Naito Pkwy in downtown PDX. It was really just a massive out and back course, more or less.
I met up with Sheryl and some other TNT runners before the race. We wandered to the start line and merged with the runners to start. Sheryl had been complaining about some leg cramps earlier in the week, so she was ready to go slower. Me? I was obviously concerned about my ankle... we both creeped along at the beginning. No one had to slow me down... I didn't want to hurt myself.
The whole "out" portion of the run was pretty much a constant uphill... Sheryl and I warmed up as we ran. At about 1.6 miles or so, the course veered off for the 5K runners. They were headed back.
At about 1.8 miles or so we started spotting the 1st place runners headed back to the finish line. I thought it was actually kinda cool seeing who was in the lead and was enjoying cheering them on. Other runners around me felt it just reminded them how slow they were.
Eh... I know I'm slow. Look at them go!!
up up up.
FINALLY at the turn around, the event gave us our first water station. Sorry, but 2 miles is a better spot than 3 miles for a water station. I was pretty thirsty. I grabbed the offered cup of water gladly, and then noticed it only had like a tablespoon of water in it. I stopped dead and complained... and then took another cup of water and chugged both of them. Then Sheryl and I continued on to the turn around.
Perry was standing at the turn around. He had apparently gotten food poisoning the night before and was in no shape to run, but he wanted to cheer us on! That was nice of him. He ran with us for like 20 feet and then left us to go find a restroom.
We were headed back down hill, and pointedly stopped at the water station again for some more water (as did a bunch of other runners around us following our lead). It wasn't long after that tho that I started dealing with a side cramp. I don't think my body appreciates a dramatic change in elevation gradient... like running a 3 mile uphill, and then heading downhill. I got a side cramp at B2B... 2B coming off of the Fremont Bridge, and also my legs started cramping coming off of the St John's Bridge at the Portland Marathon. Coincidence? I think not.
I tried dealing with the side cramp with some breathing techniques I know... but it didn't help. I finally told Sheryl I needed to walk a bit. She walked with me a touch, but then was itching to get running again so I told her to go. She took off downhill... and I walked, grabbing my side, trying to convince the side cramp to back off. I think I was dealing with that thing for about 2 minutes before it finally let up. I tried running again and it didn't come back... so I started running faster... and faster.
It was downhill afterall. easy!
After a while I was able to actually CATCH Sheryl... just at the same moment she caught up with Lori actually. It was cool. I was watching her surprise Lori, and then she was explaining that she left me behind because of my side cramp (meanwhile I was only like 10 feet behind them trying to catch up)... but during the story when motioning where I was, she turned around and gestured back and saw me. She smiled, surprised, and cheered me on, and I was like, "dang! I wasn't able to sneak up on you!!" It was pretty neat.
We all three ran together for a bit, and then I found myself chomping at the bit cause in order to pace Lori and Sheryl I had to slow down and I really wanted to go faster, so I just pulled ahead and went with it.
I could hear Lori and Sheryl talking and laughing about something behind me as I turned the corner onto Harrison. down down down.
My bad knee started to twinge on me a little... but not enough to make it impossible to run. I adjusted my gait a little so that I was bending my knees less (and taking smaller steps), and just kept going. Wheee!
Back on Naito Pkwy... I found myself trotting at a pretty good pace. One final little dip under a bridge and I felt my bad knee almost give out on me. Whoah. So close to the finish line tho, I decided to continue to ignore the knee, but try to step more carefully and reduce the impact on it. Infact.. on the little uphill out of the dip to the finish line I found myself speeding up again.
At the finish line I put forth a burst of speed and crossed the finish line with 2 other people who previously were ahead of me. ha!
I staggered over to the timing chip clipping girls, and had my chip removed.. then I grabbed some free vitamin water that was being handed out... and then.. oh yeah! I forgot to turn off my Garmin! I stopped the timer. It read 1:04:50 or so.
Then I wandered back to the finish line and Lori and Sheryl were just getting to it, so I cheered for them and hugged them once they were over the finish line.
Frank and Kim were cheering all of us on at Naito Pkwy... and met us after the finish line. We all got in line for food... AMAZING turkey tacos from Azteca... I've never had a tastier taco. ever.
Besides an amazing taco, our registration also included a complimentary cup of red hook IPA. We found a nice spot in the sunshine on the ground and ate and laughed. a good lunch with great people.
Later that night the official times were posted and I learned I finished in 1:04:14. That comes out to a 10:20 minute mile pace (I managed to shave ANOTHER 27 seconds off my pace since B2B...2B)!! EVEN WITH THE SIDE CRAMP AND THE WALKING! neat. So. I think a 10 minute mile pace for a 10K is within reach for me. I'm pretty sure it is actually. So exciting!!
Next official run for me is a 10K in Bend, OR in 2 weeks for the Pole Pedal Paddle.
The B2B...2B photos are up. It's a different photo company, so the previews aren't as big... which is a shame... but you can still see me.
Well, ok, maybe not. Here is the starting line photo. I'm actually running next to Sheryl (in green)... but directly behind the girl in the red ball cap. go figure.
And here is a view from the Widmer Brewery/Tasting room of us running along the lower deck WAY UP ABOVE on the Fremont Bridge.
That was probably the coolest part of the run actually. The view from up there was magnificent.
And then they had a couple photographers on the Broadway Bridge, but I guess none at the finish line where Sheryl and I did our cartwheels! dang. So, here are a bunch of me crossing the Broadway Bridge.
And, that's about it.
In other news, 2 weeks ago was tough soccer game for me. For one thing, none of the ladies on my co-ed team were able to come besides me, so it was just me with the guys.... and since at least 2 of 5 field players have to be women, we had to play down 1 on the field the entire game, and I wasn't allowed to sub at all. That made the game extra tricky.
I did well actually. I had a really strong game and was really enjoying myself.. until close to the end of the first half when I stepped in front of the ball to block a shot (from a girl on the other team) on our goal. Well, my foot didn't reach the ground before it blocked the full shot. A totally legal tackle, but the full force of that shot on the side of my foot made my foot act as a lever on my ankle... and the side-to-side range of motion on my ankle is what absorbed the energy of the shot.
and um, I have weak ankles.
I think I said something like, "hold on hold on hold on hold on..." as I crumpled on to the ground to hold my ankle in agony and roll around a bit on the floor with my eyes closed. It really hurt. It would have been worse if I played soccer without ankle braces on, but yeah... it still did a doozie on me. I was helped off the field. There really was only like 20 seconds left in the half be the time I was off the field.
I stripped my gear off that foot and tried putting ice on it... and then poked at it for a while over half time.... and then I decided I had to go back in. Yes, back on the field. Back into the game. I tossed the ice aside and put my gear back on, lacing my ankle brace extra tight. Then I tested my ankle in the box, hopping around and doing little direction changes to make sure it'll be able to hold up.
I was pretty sure I could do it, so I went back into the game. Played a strong second half, no problems really. I could sprint, kick, pass, etc. We of course ended up getting clobbered like 6-3, but not for lack of trying. heh. I got loads of kudos from the other team for my performance, for being able to play through that injury, and for my effectiveness on the field (oh yeah, I even scored the first goal of the night btw).
The next game was getting ready to start and I was asked to sub for a team who didn't have enough ladies show up... I considered it for about 10 seconds before I decided that was a bad idea.
Instead I went to the pub, where I put up and iced my ankle while enjoying my favorite pilsner. It was starting to stiffen up and ache a bit by the time I decided to head home.
I tried wrapping my ankle for bed, but it was uncomfortable, so I ripped the ace bandage off in the middle of the night. The next morning I woke up and noticed that yes, my ankle was a touch swollen.
Can you tell which ankle is swollen? It's a little subtle unless you look closely at the ankle bones.
Here, this photo might help a little:
By that evening the ankle had even gotten more swollen and colorful...
Yeah, the ankle hurt... I hobbled around on it for about a week or more.
It seems I finished in 01:07:02!!! Slightly better than I thought!
That comes out to a 10:47 minute mile pace (cool that I shaved 23 seconds off my mile pace in only a week!).
Other results: * 85th out of 107 in my division (Female 30-34) * 722nd out of 868 over all * 353rd out of 468 women running the 10K
So, I had a strong run (for me), and actually beat 115 women and 31 men! huh.
BUT ACTUALLY, that's not the entire story!
See, The Bridge to Bridge... to Brew run was both a 10K and an 8K race. If I include the results from the 8K race since they started at the same time and followed most of the same route as us....
... from what I can figure, it seems I physically crossed the finish line before 89 8K runners (meaning they crossed the finish line after 1:07:02), AND had a better race pace than a shocking 240 of them!!! Who'da thunk it?? There were 681 runners running the 8K race overall actually... which Sheryl and I found weird since it was only a 2K difference in length (1.3 miles or so?)... and we were wondering what the huge difference was between the 2 lengths. Why wouldn't you just go 10K if you can run an 8K?
Anyway, I'm surprised that technically, I beat more 8K runners than 10K runners on Sunday! Who would have thought?
So, the Friday following the Race for the Roses, I went ahead and ran a liesurely 6 mile run from my house.
I had noted on mapmyrun.com that the intersection of Evergreen and Gillis is exactly 3 miles from my house, so on a beautiful Friday afternoon in nearly 80 degree weather, I ran there and back home.
Turns out, I was a touch overdressed, and could feel myself getting hot. I also had to stop at the Marshall Community Center to refill my handheld water bottle after emptying it roughly 2/3rd the way through the run. I was drinking a lot of water. I forgot what running in NICE weather was like... silly me. The run took me about an hour and 7 minutes which translates to a 11:10 minute mile or so. I can do better, and I know it, so I'll keep working on improving that.
Oh, and another fun fact. On a whim, I weighed myself before and after the run. I lost 1/2 pound on the run, even tho I was drinking as much water as I could manage. I went about drinking 1/2 lbs of water after the run to make up for the liquid loss.
I would have a chance soon enough to try to improve my 6 mile time though.
+++++++++++
This morning, I went ahead and ran a 10K organized event called Bridge to Bridge... to Brews. This was a 10K that started and ended at the Widmer Brewery and Tasting Room on Interstate Ave in Portland.
Not by design, I met up with a number of TNT people at the purple TNT booth there to distribute TNT material to potential future participants (cause I didn't know where else to hang out before the race). Frank and Kim, my mentees, were there... as was Lori, my fellow TNT mentors Heidi, Tracey, and Mish, and TNT alum Karen. It was great seeing everyone! This guy named Percy who is also a TNT alum, but not on a season I ran, asked to pace me and Sheryl too. He ran with us for about half of the Portland Shamrock Run, and he said he liked our pace.
I showed up early, 7:45am or so, to pick up my race day packet (I wasn't able to get it on Saturday). That was a little earlier than I needed to be there. Finally around 9am we stepped over the start line. I was freezing by then... the weather forecast the night before said it was going to be mid-30's and raining and even possibly snowing... but in reality this morning it was just cold and overcast. No precipitation.
The course went up a hill to the east end of the Fremont Bridge, and then over the lower deck and down the long sloping ramp on the other side. It was a TOTAL THRILL to run over that bridge (no pedestrian area on the bridge. It is strictly a freeway bridge that I-405 goes over, they closed a couple lanes of the freeway off for the run this morning). GREAT VIEW of the Willamette River and downtown Portland! Way down below we could even see the Widmer Brewery/Tasting Room. Then, once in NW Portland, we just ran a route that was similar to the Race for the Roses... the 8K runners split off at a certain point, and we caught up with them later on Front St. Over the Broadway Bridge and back to the brewery. There was a surprise uphill at the finish line which was a little annoying, but Sheryl and I made it over the finish line in roughly 1:07:30 or so. So, since a 10K is 6.214 miles, that means I ran it in about a 10:52 minute mile pace. Not bad!! I still think I can do better tho.
We weren't too far behind the other TNTers either... They all met us at the finish line (which Sheryl and I decided to do a cartwheel over), and told us they were surprised at our pace... that it was the fastest that any of them had seen us run. heh. Go us! We got in line for the brewery at that point and went in for our free brats, potato salad, sauer kraut, and Widmer beer. :) We couldn't find a table, so we ended up parking on the floor and having a great time.
Photos to follow...
Oh! My mentees told me I had a couple additional pictures from Race for the Roses in a random person's photos. I went ahead and looked where they told me to, and sure enough, 2 more photos of my sprint to the finish!!
I got up, got dressed, put the temporary TEAM IN TRAINING tattoos on my cheeks (face), and headed out the door. The lobby at the double tree where the running team was meeting was really crowded and chaotic. We didn’t have time to get the team photo. sad. I, before drifting off to sleep the night before, decided to bring the new water-proof light-weight caution orange windshell that I had gotten recently. I knew the weather forecast was kinda drizzly, and mid-40’s... actually pretty good for a run, but the race course sorta stayed close to the Willamette River here in Portland, and I knew the breeze off of that can be bone chilling on colder days. I decided it was in my interest to bring this extra layer... if nothing else, cause I was still sick.
I mindlessly followed Sheryl around. I think I was annoying her a touch actually. I don’t think she was sure how ready I was to run, but I knew I was ok. I just didn’t want to lose her in the crowd, so I stuck with her.
We couldn’t quite get behind the starting line for the race start. It was too crowded, and we were kinda stuck to the side of the race course when they blew the bullhorn indicating the race start. We cheered the serious-looking runners on, and then decided to move into the starting area, and finally crossed the start line.
We ran, she slowed me down at the beginning a touch, and I thanked her for that. It’s really easy to get caught up in the excitement of the event and start out faster than you should.
Shortly after we started (while crossing the Broadway Bridge) my TNT run mentor from the Portland Marathon season caught up with us. Sheryl and Vicki are really good friends, so we were both excited to see her. She ran with us for a couple miles, and we happily chatted. We got to the slight uphill section between mile 3 and 4, and Sheryl started falling behind us. I was torn... I was doing fine and could have stuck with Vicki, but I decided to fall back a little and stick with Sheryl.
Vicki pulled ahead.
Around mile 5, while Sheryl was complaining about her knees, I guess I might have been empathetically channeling her complaints or something, but I noticed my bad knee starting to hurt. I tried adjusting the ace bandage on it on the run, but that just made things worse. Right about then we ran into Coach Julie and Captain Karl, and they asked how we were doing... I was like, "uh, my knee is beginning to bother me." We kept going tho, and I asked Sheryl if she would mind me taking the bandage entirely off and rewrapping at mile 6... that I thought it was slipping a touch and getting tighter ineffect... and pulling my kneecap in a weird direction. She said that was cool. I rewrapped... and let me tell you, that solved EVERYTHING with my knee.
Just before we crossed Burnside there was an aid station where there was also a girl (she looked maybe 30’s and probably had down syndrome) handing out honey sticks from Whole Foods. She was shrieking this fact at us actually "honey sticks from whole foods. honey stick from whole foods"... very high pitched... almost like she was trying to lose her voice. She reminded me of the receptionist lady in Office Space "Corporate accounts payable, Nina speaking. Can you hold please?"
Sheryl and I made our way through the pearl and NW portland, then to the ugly industrial area out and back. I saw many of my mentees during the out and back and was able to cheer them on, which was pretty cool. I was starting to feel fatigued at this point (approaching 2 hours?). I kept having to re-evaluate my running form and tried to lighten my attitude so that I wasn’t dragging myself along as much as actually running. At one point after silently re-evaluating myself, Sheryl encouraged me to go ahead and not feel slowed down by her, which was pretty funny... as I guess my re-evaluation actually worked. I assured her I was at my top speed at the moment, so not to worry. heh.
We watched as we approached mile 9, mile 10, mile 11. About then, I was really digging deep to find my energy (hitting the wall?) when my phone rang. Yeah, I was carrying it. This was like, 9am? I looked at it and it was Val. I answered with, "are you insane!?! why are you calling me??" She was sufficiently cowed. I think I was a little mean to her actually. She was asking where I was on the race course, and I was like, "far enough along that I really am not in the mood to talk." She apologized, I told her I’d call her back when I was done and hung up. As an additional note: I did call her back after the race, she was calling to see where I was, hoping to be able to come out and cheer me on, which is TOTally sweet of her, but we both agreed that was better discussed the day before the race (I could have calculated with my expected pace where I’d be when) instead of at mile 11, with less than 45 minutes left in my race, and me exhausted off my ass. I’m not sure she could have driven downtown, found parking, and gotten to the race course at the appropriate spot in time even if I was up to telling her where she could see me.
Every once in a while on the race course (about every 3 miles?) there was some stereo system setup playing music loudly. I heard an old Michael Jackson song, the Love Shack, I Will Survive, stuff like that. Pretty fun and distracting. We were just passing a sound system like that and Sheryl got pumped. I commented that she was suddenly amped up, and where ever that energy came from I wasn’t quite in the same place. I encouraged her to go with it and not feel like she had to stick with me. She pulled ahead of me.
A second annoying out and back along the river that was WAY longer than I was expecting, and now I was running it alone. I found myself actually closing my eyes while I ran and thinking specifically about my breathing, my strides, my form. I could tell my leg muscles were threatening to cramp if I tried anything they didn’t like. All I could do was continue and push myself as much as I dared.
FINALLY the turn-around came up on me. I was noticing that the runners had REALLY thinned out where I was, it was thicker where Sheryl was (I saw her running "back" while I was still headed "out"), we cheered eachother on. Running back is always faster than the out bit. At the end of this second out and back was the ramp up onto the Steele Bridge. This ramp is the biggest "hill" of the entire course, and altho only 200 meters long is pretty brutal at mile 13. The coaches and captain Karl were at the base of the bridge ramp and gave me high fives as I psyched myself up for the ascent.
I ran... slowly. Some other runner passed me on that uphill like I was crawling. poopy head.
Finally, almost at the top, I actually said out loud, "who am I kidding?" and I slowed to a walk for the first time of the entire run. I was walking kinda bull-legged too till my legs got used to not running, and continued to strut up to the top of the bridge like the walking wounded. Others had caught up to me, but didn’t pass me. They were all feeling that hill I think. Finally on the flat on top of the bridge, knowing it was only like 0.15 miles left in the race, I took a deep breath and started running again. The people who had caught up to me but hadn’t passed me on that uphill (4 of em?) all slowly passed me as I was coming off the other end of the bridge. It was pretty sad. I came across some other TNT people who were done already and were on the side of the road cheering my progress by saying "you’re almost there!"...
(side note: this, along with "pick up the pace!" is THE WORST thing you can say to a runner in an endurance event. When you are running, you’re only "almost there" when you could literally pass out and fall inert over the finish line... much better shouts of encouragement are:go [name of runner here]!, looking good!, you’re doing great!, way to go!, we’re proud of you!, you make running sexy!, and other such endearments which touch on neither how slow you are actually moving, nor how much further you still have to go)
... These TNT people were trying to entice me to keep running by telling me about the carrot cake and cookies after the finish line. I pathetically whined that I don’t much like carrot cake and cookies (I don’t have a sweet tooth). I’d rather have beer and cheese. They gave up and told me that the finish line was up ahead, and that was a good reason to keep going. I said, "ok, finish line. I want the finish line." By this point I was coming to the little underpass just before the sharp left-turn and then the finish line is RIGHT THERE... I knew this. Those 4 people had pulled ahead of me as I was approaching that left turn... and I got a little fire in my belly. I started running faster... and faster... and faster... and I broke out in to a sprint.
I rounded that corner at a pretty good clip, but kept getting faster. I passed all 4 of those other runners and crossed the finish line a good 20 feet ahead of them running my little ass off. The spectators at the finish line were cheering my late-in-the race push with "whoah, nice!" comments that I could hear. The announcer guy called my name out as I crossed the finish line. I smiled to myself and came to a panting stop after the finish... then hobbled over to where they had volunteers clipping the timing chips off your shoes. I was done.
I was able to be there 20 minutes later to cheer my mom over the finish line also. She said it was cool to hear me cheering for her.
There was supposed to be a victory party at a bakery after the run, but I was done. I was completely out of energy and cold and sore and needed to have a hot shower and a nap. I went straight home.
well, I ran the half marathon this morning. I'll add a second event blog once the event photos are posted online at the end of the week.
It was a pretty rough run for me. I woke up with a NEW and different sore throat this morning... more like a tonsil ache really on the left side of my throat. blah. I packed some kleenex, a handful of cough drops, and my new light weight, high-tech, caution orange windshell pullover on me to go to meet the TNT team at 6am at the doubletree hotel.
I ended up needing all of the coughdrops, but none of the kleenex before 10am. BUT, regardless of my infirmed condition, I MADE IT! I ran the half in 02:42:47, roughly a 12:30 minute mile pace. Ok, my personal goal was under 2 hours 37 minutes... but i think considering how sick I've been for the past 2 weeks (and still kinda am), only 6 minutes slower than my intended goal pace isn't half bad. PLUS it gives me something solid to strive to beat next half!!
You should have heard me coughing through the send-off party on Saturday night. It was pathetic. I clearly was NOT the vision of health I should have been. oh well.
I can honestly say: today's run was HARDER than running the portland marathon last year. I was more exhausted at the end, and just as sore. I'm glad it's done. My mom and I celebrated with AMAZING italian food tonight and lots of wine. :D
She finished in 03:03:02. Pretty fricken fast for a walker. Thats quicker than a 14 minute mile pace (faster than my marathon pace).
So tonight, I sent out a conclusion email to my mentees: "WELL DONE EVERYONE! I'm so proud of all of you, even those of you who have run marathons or half marathons before!
It was cold and prehaps a touch drizzly at times, but I think I can say all of you had a great run today! AND, today's mid-40's degree overcast weather treated all of us well (after hail and sleet and snow and whatever else we've trained in!!). I think I even spotted the sun on occasion today!
- Amy and Gabrielle had their best pace of the season today, you ladies did a FRICKEN GREAT job!!
- Kim and Frank were a good 2 miles ahead of me kicking serious ass on the course, I was at least able to cheer them on on the first out and back! Great job you two! NEW PRs!!! You'll have to run another half to try to beat your times today!! ;)
- I last saw Teresa going up the Broadway Bridge at the beginning of the race looking strong as always, and I had a funny feeling that was the last I was going to see of you today! I'm hoping today was more fun than any other half or full marathon you've ever ran!! This was your first event as PART of the "purple" group, so I'm hoping that made today more fun!
- Rebecca, you've been running strong all season long! I hope you had a great day too! I'm sure you did, even tho I never spotted you on the course!
- And... last but not least Sheryl, my running partner for this season, even had to ditch my poor, sick, cough-drop-sucking butt at 11.5 miles cause she was so amped up on whatever special run formula she had. She looked remarkable, even from 100 meters behind!! :)
GO TEAM!!!
Besides spotting all of you that I could on the race course, I'd have to say my most notable moments today were:
(1) finding *my* TNT run mentor, Vicki, running today's race!! She ran with me for a couple miles even! Even tho she wasn't wearing TNT's purple race day jersey she still was thanking every TNT supporter with a HUGE genuine smile and chanting "Go TEAM!" more than I was managing! It's no wonder I was inspired to support TNT after having her as an example! I'm hoping I was at least half the mentor to all of you as she was to me!!!
(2) spotting Sherman at the TNT water booth handing out water at mile 4. He was on the Portland running team during the Portland Marathon (fall) season in 2007, and it was amazingly uplifting to see him today volunteering with TNT. I know some of you will go on to do other events with TNT in the future (you'd better, you all did GREAT this season).... but for those of you too busy to train for another "event" (OR to mentor *hint* *hint*) in the near future, please consider volunteering with TNT for booths or support or other things! Being there to hand water to TNT participants is an amazing help to LLS! Plus, you never know who you will run in to!!
(3) seeing Amy with her son after the finish line! It's true, you all have personal lives, work, friends, family, etc to manage/balance on a day to day basis, and the fact that you gave so much to TNT and LLS is so amazingly selfless of you! I don't know if you felt like heros today, but watching Amy pose for pictures with her son, and seeing how PROUD her family was of her, reminded me that each and every one of you ARE heros. I'm lucky to know the group of you!
(4) running into our coaches, Joe, Julie, and Pri, and Captain Karl today! MULTIPLE times! They did such a great job at training us, and it's always gratifying to validate their training by making it through the course. The look on their faces when they spot us is not only heart warming and inspirational, but I feel like I'm reinforcing the strength of TNT (no matter how much pain I'm in) when I'm where they hope they'll see me during the run. Without their support, TNT wouldn't be as amazing a program as it is today! It's nice knowing someone is looking out for you!
(5) every time I heard a cow bell today I smiled. That is the signature sound of a TNT supporter.
I honestly had to dig deep today to be able to run. It's true! Today was personally harder for me than the Portland Marathon last year, probably due to my week+ illness I'm (still) fighting off. I, on multiple occasions this morning, found myself closing my eyes (while running, yes. Dangerous (!), but safer on a 4-lane police-blocked-off race course) and thinking about my pain and lack of strength to continue, and then thought about the LLS mission and reminded myself that the people going through cancer treatments today, no matter HOW bad it gets, don't have the option to "walk" or quit like I did today... and somehow that gave me the strength to push through.
I thought about my running form. I thought about my breathing. I thought about Joan. ... and I thought about how much I honestly DID have still left in me to put into my run. I straightened my posture as best I could, lightened my attitude, and ran like I meant it... simply because I COULD and there wasn't any reason not to.
Today is what we trained for after all!
So, this morning with the aid of 3 cough drops, no kleenex, and walking a total of about 50 meters, I finished the course.
Thanks for making the journey of the past 3 months worthwhile! I hope to see all of you at TNT alumni events or future endurance events, whatever they may be!!!
btw, I'm currently registered for the Cinco de Mayo 10K on May 4 (http://www.terrapinevents.com/cinco-de-mayo.htm), if you are planning on running this event look for me! I'd love to say hi!!
Cheers! jacqueline"
Incase you're wondering. Yes, a handful for me is 3 cough drops. I have small hands.
oh yeah, and YES I'll be continuing to run. stay tuned!!!
Been sick since Wednesday last week. Started as a horrible sore throat, over the weekend it spread to a stuffy head, runny nose, and swollen sinuses. I skipped the Saturday morning group run, but it was ok cause we're tapering right now and it was only a 6 mile run. Coach Joe and Captain Karl both told me to stay home.
On Monday this week I woke up with an itchy, crusty, red eye. I said, "enough," and dragged myself to the doctor.
She checked me out from head to toe, and pronounced that it was most definitely a virus. And, in fact, this virus had given me viral conjunctivitis (pink eye). She suggested I'd be feeling a lot better on Thursday, and I would probably be able to run my half marathon on Sunday, but I had to take it easy.
Because of my race this weekend, she prescribed me general antibiotics. Not because it would help me with my virus directly, but because if I had anything else going on that would theoretically SLOW DOWN my getting over the virus, the antibiotics could help play defense there. She told me if it wasn't for my race this weekend, she wouldn't have given me the antibiotics.
Anyway.... my eye is still pink. My sore throat is mostly gone, I'm still dealing with sinus and runny nose things, but that's about it. I'm still hoping I'll be better in 4 days.
The doctor also gave me Rx pseudoephedrine. Holy cow, that stuff works.
Anyway, that's my status right now. It probably WAS a good thing I stayed home instead of going out for the group run, I understand this virus is pretty fricken contagious, so I could have infected the entire running team if I went. That would have been very bad.
Oh yeah, and I met Rebecca at the Send-Off party! She's really nice! Now I feel silly for declaring that she was avoiding me on purpose. heh.
... and just cause I'm starting to go stir crazy here at home, I made this:
