I Survived

Thank goodness for good friends. And indulgent friends.  And friends who hit you upside the head when you need it and friends who totally GET it.  

At 7:30 this morning, I picked up a friend for a hike and bless her heart, she didn't run the other way when greeted with "I'm supposed to be 30 minutes into my first marathon right now" when she innocently enough asked how I was.  And then again at 10:20 when we were on our way home and I reminded her I was supposed to be on the downhill side of the marathon right now -- and I would have known by then how bad it was hurting and probably a bit of an estimate on my time.  

She just let me go on.  

And then I skyped with another friend early in the afternoon who had the nerve to also ask how I was so I had to respond "I'd be happier if I was a marathoner right now!".  He was less indulgent (which was fine, honestly) and said 'you'll get your marathon."  Blah blah blah.  Duh.  Of course he's right.  But I picked this one last October damnit and it was supposed to be mine.  I wasn't letting go easily.  Or happily.

But the award for the one who got it the most goes to XL MIC who pops into my gchat at just the right moment with a "man it is rough today, how are you doing?"  So I could just let loose with someone who understood.  And not only understood, she was feeling the same since this was to be her re-entry to marathoning after a long absence.  So we boo hoo'd a bit and made plans for the SF Half, an invalid training plan and danced around CIM.  We'll get it done this time.  I'm sort of insisting at this point. 

In other, less grumpy news, I hiked 6 miles today and ran 5 miles last week.  Oh how it both pains me and excites me to type that.  But we'll concentrate on the excites me.  

I was having such ankle pain -- the doc said I was probably compensating and I figured I was but I couldn't figure out how to make it go away.  I tried wrapping my ankle which seemed to work but the second I took it off, the pain would come back so I figured I had to somehow make my foot not hurt so I'd stop walking weird (this wasn't conscious -- because really the foot pain is minimal) so I hit upon wrapping my foot and that seemed to work.  I don't think it is a long term solution because effectively it elevates my right foot having the mid section wrapped -- but it seemed to make my foot happy and my ankle even happier.  So doing that for a few days now has taken the ankle pain to nothing so now I'm left with some weird foot pain in the arch of my foot towards my heel -- I don't think that is stress fracture pain -- because really it has been almost 12 weeks -- but I'm watching it.  The runs last week and the hike today left my foot tired but not in pain, if that makes sense.  

I'm kind of renewed now with the fitness stuff.  I've managed a pathetic baseline so this week I'll ramp it up -- not a lot of running -- but definitely enough to keep me motivated with the other stuff. 

So the week ends positive.  I'm excited to read all the Eugene recaps -- because it seemed like everyone and their brother was running it today.  So all is good.