The marathon the wasn't, then was...

Sorry, the month of September brought a lot of frustration and craziness with back to school, work and wrong injury diagnoses. Over the next few days I'll fill in the missing details and end with a fun giveaway before getting back to regular writing...

I ended my posting by talking about my 20 miler, sore leg and icing. I skipped a couple key workouts due to pain but by weekend I typically felt fine again. Well I managed a 22 mile run with a little achiness but not terrible. This was a Saturday, I took Sunday off and walking around the State Fair.

Off the 1st Grade

I headed out for an easy run Monday (Labor Day) with friends and it hurt but I ran because I could (yep, stupid I know!) my gait wasn't too different. Come Tuesday, first day of school, I met friends for our annual school's back breakfast, volunteered at lunch and tried an afternoon tempo run. It all went downhill from there...

I was liming from the start, I was limping. I made it to the end of the block and decided to walk. Maybe loosening things up would help. I walked to 1/2 mile then tried running again. It was over. I can't remember the rest, I think I grabbed Cooper and walked feeling crabby. The pain continued and since I had 2 hours while O danced that night and conveniently down the street was walk in sports/ortho clinic. We chatted for awhile and with the point tenderness, despite the negative XRay. I heard the words no runner ever wants to hear...stress fracture and you are out for the marathon. And by the way, wear a boot. I decided to give it time and skip the expensive, time consuming MRI.  

Wednesday morning I was frustrated, wore the boot to the bus stop and tried for Cooper's walk but immediately knew this was going to be worse in the end with hip issues. Over the next 2 days I had it on and off but soon said enough. The boot found it self a new spot in my car and is still there today. 

I spent the next few days frustrated, upset, angry...planning a new marathon. Trying to figure out what went wrong when we thought everything was right and I was being smart. You know all the runner emotions. 

Then by Thursday I had no pain. Maybe it was due to no running or better yet maybe he was wrong. I spent a lot of time on the bike and elliptical mimicking my long runs and other workout. I went to CrossFit and biked/rowed instead of running.  I exchanged many frustrated emails with coach Nichole and we talked about a plan. I stayed active with no running.

Each day I felt better. 8 days after those dreaded words I saw my chiropractor and she could not find the pain spot on the bone but the entire tibialis muscle and sheath was terrible, she worked through that and I sat with 10 needles in my leg. Talk about torture! 

Nichole and I chatted again and decided to give the last 20 mile run a try, but first and easy run to test it out. After 12 days off I ran and my leg was tight but no pain! So I did it, finished training after missing a few key weeks and speed workouts. I ended my training not quite hitting goals and speeds I wanted but it looked like marathon #30 was going to happen despite the set back.... Race recap tomorrow

How do you deal with running set backs? Did you race this weekend?