Plot Twist

Since the beginning of this year I've had one goal in sight:  The Boston Marathon

For the most part my training has gone really well.  At the beginning of March I began having problems with getting my speed/interval workouts done.  This is my hardest area of training.  My weakest too.  I'm way too guilty of just wanting to run and not put a lot of effort into targeting a very specific pace.  I naturally run an ok pace (depending on who you ask or compare me to), but I'm ok with how my pace falls.  It's fast enough to be competitive in almost any race I run, but not necessarily enough to be in the top.  I can almost always place in my age group in larger races.  In smaller local races I often win.

I see many areas where it would be easy to improve my pace.  I see a lot of potential within myself.  Not that it's going to do a whole lot, other than give me more personal satisfaction.  But I'm a pretty competitive person by nature and I have yet to run certain races giving 100% and knowing I've done my absolute personal best.  I usually finished feeling like I had more to give.  I want to change that!

Eventually my training fell off of pace.  Or rather my pace training fell apart.  All of my other training was going well.  Long runs were happening every weekend, hill workouts were taking place (Heartbreak Hill has nothing on me!) & plenty of other conversational pace runs were happening without much effort. I was still very optimistic about how things were going to play out for finishing Boston.  I had little doubt that I would go and run my personal best.

And then....well, I'm not 100% sure what happened.  There was no hole, no crack, no stick or rock.....nothing, as far as I know caused my foot/ankle to give out.  I didn't fall.  That's exactly what I was trying to prevent because I was running toward traffic and a truck was coming at me.  So instead of falling or even stumbling a little bit I snapped my foot back up in one quick motion and immediately I was feeling pain.  This (my foot/ankle buckling and me maneuvering to prevent a complete fall or injury) has happened plenty of times, probably once a week or at least a few times a month.  Normally I shake it off, take a few more steps then get back into my pace.  But this time was different.  I did keep running, trying to "shake it off", but I quickly realized this was no pain like I've ever felt.  I walked a little bit and tried to run again, but with no luck.  I walked back to where my van was in complete pain.

In case you've forgotten, I could write a book on any given subject.  I love to hash out all the details.  But, long story short.....I broke my foot.  Which was not listed anywhere in my training plan for a successful Boston!!

I've been left to just deal with this plot twist that has been thrown at me.  I've been completely blindsided with this turn of events.  There are worse things that could happen & yes, I believe, even worse timing that it could happen.  So I'm choosing to see the bright side of things and continue to be optimistic.  It's been a process though as I've had plenty of moments of frustration & doubt.  But I still keep coming back to being positive.

Big picture, I'm still going to be able to run Boston.  Yes, with a broken bone in my foot.  I have a pretty high pain tolerance and have really come too far and *this close* to Boston to not run.  Of course, my doctor has advised me not to run.  Once I made it known that I was running no matter what he gave me some tips of how to lessen the pain or any potential damage and then wished me good luck.  He seemed very skeptical that I'd be able to endure to pain & discomfort for 26 miles.  He apparently doesn't know me very well!!