It's R-A-C-E week

Akron. It's just days away...4 at the time I start typing this...

So here are my random thoughts...about this beloved race of mine that I am not running.

• This sucks. I'm okay though. No. I lie. I'm not okay. But I will be okay. Especially come November.
• I know I am doing the right thing by not running. For one, I am not trained. At. All. I cannot go out on that course with a clear mind and know I'm doing the right thing. That would be stupid. Sure, I didn't train for my first half. But I surely had ran more than 4 miles in the weeks leading up to it. Not only the physical "wrongness" of trying to do it, but the mental "wrongness" of it. I know I would end up in tears. Hell, I teared up at mile 2 on the 4Miler on Sunday. Cry for 13.1? No thanks. Don't need to add to the dehydration. 
• I am packing tissues with me when I walk my girls to the start line. It will tears of joy for them. And tears of sadness for me.  I'm happy they are here to experience. But I'm sad that I'm not running it. I sound selfish. But my sadness of not running it is more so because  not running it with MY DAD. You know, like we set out to do 11 months ago.  I guess I can look at it this way...I'm only letting him down and not a team if Speedy-Feet and I had gone on with the relay race and not the 1/2 again. But...it's still sad. 
• The AF Marathon also has a 5k race that is ran on the Friday night before the big races. My booth was positioned just perfectly near a door where I could watch the race. And I did. And I thought about what it would be like to watch the runners at Akron on Saturday. And I looked away. 

I am being absolutely ridiculous. I can tell myself that. But no on else can.

But as I'm finishing this post, 3 pre-race days, I went for a very brisk walk with Boss Lady this evening. And it felt AWESOME!  I could feel my legs and feet craving the attention. They felt alive! I felt alive! And on my way home, I texted Kelly and Aly to see if either of them wanted to do FARRELL Road real quick! (Kelly did it last night and told Aly and me). I had this sudden urge to go see if I could do it! Kelly was literally on her way out the door to go for her walk! SCORE! We walked a little; I ran/jogged a little. 2 1/2 times total! That's up twice, down twice, and half way up once and back down. I think that math is correct.  And it felt AMAZING! Dare I say I missed FARRELL Road?!    Ask me in the morning. I'm icing my foot now as a precaution!  

So all in all, I think I'm gonna be okay. I think I'm gonna get thru this because it have a new goal. And I KNOW I will be back next year at Akron! I. Know. It. 

Run. Strong. 

-t-

P.S. Typed this on my phone...no special effects...sorry for misspellings and ramblings! 

This is where I am.

Almost a month since I've blogged...you probably are thinking my foot fell off by now. It didn't. I still have it. And without a boot.

We went camping over Labor Day. I wore my running shoes as best as I could. Thankfully we were all close together so there wasn't too much walking back and forth between campsites. 

L to R (standing at Corwin Jr.): Yarosh, Corwin Sr, random, Aly, Me

I did keep it elevated. Iced it every chance I got. It was feeling better, but with all the additional walking, I didn't want to overuse it.

I went back to Dr. Pat after the holiday. Boot off. Shoes on. Just do it. More light therapy. More stretching. Okay. I think I got this. Start walking on it. Try 1 mile/4x, see how it feels. I got to 3 miles walking with Boss Lady. At once. Oops. But it was okay.  

Then I worked the Canton City Marathon for BondiBand that weekend. This was my first expo for the fall season. It was a super small expo but a great opportunity to train a new rep, my friend Toni from Cleveland! And a great opportunity to refresh my sales pitch! I wore my compression socks and did my best to not put too much pressure on it. And of course iced it in the evening while I watched the Buckeyes lose :(

Went back to Dr. Pat the following week. Increase my miles (I heard up to 8 miles). Try a run/walk. See how it feels. I know my body. Listen. Come back in 3 weeks. 

More walking with Boss Lady. Couple miles in with Aly. I get sick. It's a sinus thing. Or allergies. But it brought me down.

Fast forward a week.  AF MARATHON EXPO!!!  The expo for the race I will never run.   3 grueling days on my feet. But I survived. And so did the foot! Iced every night. Did not stand with pressure on it. Stretched.  All is good.

Nate and I at finish!

Then to close out the last 3 weeks, Nate and I ran THE Ohio State 4Miler on Sunday. That's 4 miles through THE Ohio State University and finish on the 50 yard line of The Shoe! AHHHHHMAZING! We ran this last year and it was as equally amazing this year.  My dad and Deb came down for the race too! 12,000 runners/walkers.  

Dad and Deb outside The Shoe!

Since I haven't ran much, I knew I was not going to be able to just go out there and do it like I used to. And I was okay with that. I was out there. So I went with a 3 min run/2 min walk. It worked perfectly for the most part. Sometimes the run was longer than 3, sometimes the walk was longer than 2. But I finished. And only 6 minutes slower than last year. My foot hurt at times, but if I adjusted my run, it wouldn't hurt. It's like teaching me to run all over again.

The medal is AWESOME!

After the race, Nate and I went RoadRunner Sports to get the "gait" checked and see if I needed/wanted some new shoes. I did. I'm a sucker for a 25% discount! (don't judge, that's 15% more than my usual VIP discount). I went with the Saucony Guide 7. I switched to a Saucony (Hurricane) last year before Akron and loved them. And bought the new version this past spring and ran in them for quite some time before the injury. So I was concerned that the shoe was to blame. It wasn't. And there isn't much difference:

information courtesy of www.saucony.com

So that about sums up the last 3 weeks. This week is the Akron. I am not running. But I am still participating. And I have a few thoughts on that. Stay tuned.

Run. Strong.
-t-