In The Beginning

To understand my motivation for starting this blog you one would have to understand what it’s like to be sidelined with an injury.  My running 50-75 miles a week cut short to riding a stationary bike.  Approximately 50 races on my bucket list completed and a Ragnar Tahoe Ultra Race postponed and transferred to another venue.  I am now motivated to write as I spend a great deal of my time now sitting, healing.

How did this come to be?  A race.  But first a bit of history, I am not as young as I used to be none of us are) and took up ultra-running 5 years ago.  I had never run before, hated running with a passion in school and was known for commenting on how crazy anyone was for wanting to do anything more than a 5k.  I would never be one of those persons.  Not me.  

Then came “the bucket list”.

I have always been a backpacker, having explored Colorado, Arizona and California since I was nine years old thanks to my parents.  The John Muir Trail became a dream when I was faced with a very sudden undiagnosed neurological problem and the great possibility of being in a wheelchair in the near future.  Anyway, in an effort to stabilize my walking from a weeble to a wobble to someone who was able to handle paths with cliffs on one edge, I took up running. 

I went from my first race, walking a half marathon (more on that later) to running a 50k in just over one year. I just completed that same 50k, in June, placing 2^nd in my age group, the weekend before and for fun only, ran the Walt Stack Double Dipsea.  It was here that I met my fate.

Stinson Beach and Muir Woods were a wonderful backdrop for a race.  The trail incredibly beautiful and challenging. The Race was put on by outstanding people, couldn’t ask for more.  I felt great.  Just over a half marathon, this was no biggy.  It was on the way back from Mill Valley that I met with disaster. Mile 8.5.  The trail is one where you have to work your brain, concentrate on the obstacles and know where to land.  I did so all throughout without problem. Until it got easy.  It was when the trail smoothed out and had no obstacles, no stairs that I became complacent and dropped my focus.  I twisted my foot and immediately felt a pop.  The pain came as I passed an aide station and made the decision to power walk the pain away.  Unfortunately, it didn’t leave me.

The swelling was almost immediately after I passed my DNF option.  I have never had a non-finish and wasn’t about to experience that on this run. Getting into this was another bucket list item. So I pressed on and slowly began running again.  The pain increased and I was faced with my brain wanting to focus on it which was making things worse.  That went on for about a mile.

I knew something was not good with my foot, I thought it was possibly a bad ankle sprain. It felt like it was my ankle, the same one I broke in three places the first day of ski season several years ago while getting equipment down from our attic.  I kept focusing on the pain and the obvious swelling that was occurring in my Salomon shoes.

As I pressed on, I came upon a couple of runners ahead of me and came to the realization that if I focused on them, if I could pass them, I would have something else to focus on. I could leave the pain behind me on the trail.  So, I did.  I did this with each runner I subsequently came upon. It became a game of sorts.  “I can beat this one”.  I studied their gate, their body position and their overall running attitude and picked them off one by one. 

I made it out the last 5 miles plus this way and completed the Race feeling little pain.

I placed third in my age group and went home with a broken fifth metatarsal. 

And here I sit. 

What I learned from this was; 1) get yourself out by yourself when possible, 2) you can set the pain aside by focusing outside yourself and 3) the race will go down as my favorite because of what I learned.

I love running.