Non-turkey trottin'

As I sit here on this Thanksgiving evening, I'm reading about what everyone is thankful for. I will add to that by saying that I'm thankful to all of my marathon contributors, my ability to go out for a run today and for organizations like Livestrong and St. Jude's for all they do for cancer patients and their families. It has been a while since I have posted and do have updates. Seems my foot problem was some pretty severe plantar fasciitis. I exited the doctor's office with a nice pair of crutches to help me get around. He told me to rest, which I did probably a little too well. I wasn't able to ride a bike or run for more than a week, well, until today. Today was my first run since the half marathon. I ran a little more than three miles and it wasn't pretty. Between my stack of French toast this morning & my gluttony during my injury time, it became a tough run. Top that with the humidity and heat here in Florida. You heard me, Florida. My parents are snowbirds so this year Thanksgiving is in sunny Florida. It's nice to have sunny and warm weather, but the humidity is tough. My foot did hurt near the end of my run, but I didn't push it. With some ice, rest and my Naproxen, I should be good for my Saturday Santos ride in Ocala. I hope all of my readers have had a great Thanksgiving and if you're traveling, that you have safe trips!

Mustache Love

Saturday's half marathon was a little disappointing for me. I didn't finish under two hours, I hurt my foot and I had to walk for two miles. Needless to say, my spirits were a little low for most of the run. I did find a little source of inspiration during, what I have dubbed, the 'Walking Miles'.

For the month of November, I have been growing a mustache for Movember. Most people make fun of the 'stache or just flat out hate it, but I don't mind, it's for a good cause. I had been walking for a little more than a mile and as I was limping along with my head down, I noticed something shiny in the road. As I got closer I noticed it was a pin lying face down. I picked it up and flipped it over and immediately felt a smile on my face.

That's right, mustache love. It gave me a boost of confidence and really reminded me of why I was out there. It also made me feel a little worse too knowing that I may have had to give up the half and not finish. I clipped the pin onto my number on my chest and continued walking and I could hear it jingle with every step. Now it will forever be pinned to my wool Retrotec cycling cap with my other pins. So to all you Movember participants, love your mustache.

Mile marker one

I've had a lot of people text me and send me facebook messages asking me how my half marathon went yesterday. I had planned on waiting until tomorrow to post, but thought I'd give a weekend edition.

As my core followers know, I have been battling a nagging foot injury for a couple of weeks now, but with a few exercises and some Naproxen it wasn't bothering me nearly as bad. So Saturday, I took extra special care to do the necessary stretches and take my medication before the run. I got there a bit early to register and make sure my legs were warmed up.

As we lined up the start line I couldn't have felt better. My foot was hurting a little bit, but not enough to bother my stride or my times. I was stuck in some traffic for the first mile, but as the herd thinned down I found myself in a good pace and started to chip away at the ten minute first mile I had just run. As the first few miles ticked off, I noticed that I was right on pace for my sub two hour run. Mile one, ten minutes, mile two, eight-ish minutes, mile three nine minutes. This went on until the turn around point at mile five. As I approached the turnaround point my foot started to aggravate me a bit. So, just before mile six marker I got this feeling like someone had just driven a stake into my heel with a hammer. The pain when I would land on my right foot was almost unbearable. I didn't want to do it, but I had no choice but to walk the next two miles, killing my sub two hour goal.

The way the course was laid out, at around mile eight, you were right at the finish line if you turned left, if you turned right, you made the final five mile loop to finish the run. I thought very seriously about stopping and not finishing the run. As a matter of fact, when I got there I had already decided I was finished, but some unknown force pulled me right and I started to lightly jog to the top of the hill to the eight mile marker. The thought of not finishing really devastated me. I had a goal of finishing in two hours, I didn't want to NOT finish. So I ran the next five miles in some of the most excruciating pain I have ever felt in my entire life. There were several hills to run up and down and at the next mile marker I noticed that I had just run a 14 minute mile. The last few were very slow going to say the least. As I got to the top of the last hill I could see the finish line and the marker that read '13'. As I saw the marker, I also saw Amanda. She had to work Saturday morning so she wasn't there for the start, but other than the time keepers, she was the only one standing at the finish line. Seeing her there was just as sweet as finishing. As I crossed the finish line, I noticed I had beat the cutoff time by five minutes, finishing in 2hrs 55 mins. Then I collapsed in pain. For the next few minutes my foot throbbed and stabbed.

Today I wake up and I can't walk on my right foot. I am now hopping on my left foot everywhere I go. As I sit here writing this post, I am planning a trip to the weekend after-hours clinic to have them look at it. Although I'm glad I finished the race, I now think it may have been a bit foolish. Ah well, I have  until April to heal up.

Preparation. Underrated.

Tomorrow is THE day, the first big milestone in this adventure, the BAE half marathon. This week hasn't really gone the way I wanted it to. With a HUGE project due at work in a ridiculously short amount of time, I've spent several days working well into the night. On top of that I've had this nagging heel problem and yesterday it was almost unbearable.

I'm not one to take medication, I'll usually deal with something until it doesn't go away and have no choice but to take some pills. Last night was one of those times. For the past two weeks I have been dealing with what seems to be Plantar Fasciitis. Since it's an inflammation issue, icing seemed to be a viable cure for it, but after researching it a little more it looks like it takes about a year to get rid of it. Yep, that's right, a year. Most doctors recommend ice, an anti-inflammatory and some Ibuprofen for around nine months before any other treatment (steroid shots or surgery in the most severe cases) is considered. So given my aversion to taking pills, Amanda and I have several bottles of Naproxen lying around and last night I took one and let me tell you it was wonderful! In about ten minutes I had no pain in my heel and I could walk normally. Sweet relief. I have some that are lower dosage that I will take regularly, but the more potent ones, I'll save for big run days. I can deal with a little nagging pain, but trust me, this thing gets bad.

But enough whining about my injuries because I do have other things to share. First one is a news story I ran across yesterday and shared on facebook. Some of you may have seen it, but for those of you who aren't on my list of friends, I will share it here as well. I follow Lance Armstrong on Twitter and he tweets a lot of Livestrong stuff and yesterday he posted a story about a kid in high school who has a cancerous brain tumor and is playing in his last high school football game. I won't go into the entire story so you can read it for yourself.

Another thing I wanted to share is a shopping tip. There are lots of companies out there who do stuff to bring awareness and raise money for cancer research, treatment, etc. Of course you have to buy their product to do it, but they're doing their part I guess. First one is Yoplait yogurt. Amanda has been saving her Yoplait lids for breast cancer where for every lid you return, Yoplait donates $.10 to breast cancer research. You can find out how much money they have raised and more here.

Another one that I just found out about is a coffee company. I'm pretty sure the company I saw was Caribou. I bought this coffee because with every purchase of a bag, they will donate $.50 of your purchase to help treat and prevent cervical cancer in women in coffee growing communities around the world. Most of these communities are very low on resources and access to treatment. You can find out more about this organization at groundsforhealth.org.

I'll be back on Monday morning with a post about my first ever half marathon. If you're a runner and have tomorrow free, come on out to run with me. I'm not fast.

Feet, don't fail me now

This weekend is the BAE Half Marathon in Kingsport. My plan for this week was to get in a couple of short runs just to keep my legs loose, however, that has yet to happen. It has been busy at work and I got to enjoy a 16 hour workday yesterday and probably a 10+ hour day today. So, needless to say, I won't be running today either.

This busy week has given me the opportunity to rest my right foot. For the past couple of weeks my heel has been hurting pretty bad, so after some online research, all of my symptoms point to plantar fasciitis. I noticed that I fell into just about every category of causes for it as well, including running in worn out shoes, having tight calf muscles, increasing your running distance too fast, etc. So for the past several days I have been icing it and it's feeling much better. There were days that I woke up in the morning and I couldn't stand on my right foot because the pain was so intense. I certainly hope it goes away completely before Saturday.

Speaking of worn out shoes, I have gotten two solid runs in on my new Asics Nimbus shoes and they are super sweet! Way more comfortable than my old worn out Nikes I was running in. I got about 6.5 miles in with Chris on Thursday before we saw Race Across the Sky and then about 4.5 on Saturday morning on my way to the Bristol Health Challenge.

Hopefully I'll have a better update for you later in the week as we get closer to my first big running event.

I got sole!

Where has the time gone? The BAE Half Marathon is next weekend and I have had a couple of items to take care of before then.

First, to be able to run 13.1 miles and I'm almost there. Chris and I ran 6.3 on Tuesday and it was rough. After racing on Saturday and not doing anything active on Sunday or Monday, my legs were feeling it. If you want some specific details of Tuesday's run, you can find it here since Chris has a nice Garmin to run with. He gives me great data after runs!

Second item to take care of...shoes. I've been wanting to get a new pair of running shoes and my knees have been begging me to get a new pair of running shoes, so last night I got a new pair of running shoes. A generous donor to this adventure opted to buy my first pair of shoes, so I researched what I needed and headed out to the shoe store. It ended up being between a pair of Nikes and a pair of Asics. In the end, the gel sole of the Asics just felt better than Nike's air sole.

I do want to remind all of the guys out there that it is Movember. So donate your face and grow a mustache! I'll post pics of mine soon!

Can't be beat

So, it has been a while since I last posted. Last I left you I was preparing for a 12 hour mountain bike race. Well, the race went pretty well, our team got third in our class. But, my brother had a crash that cut his head so my concern for that far outweighed the podium finish. I skipped the ceremonies to go hang with my brother at Oak Ridge Methodist while he waited for a stitch job. He is doing much better and will hopefully not have too bad of a scar on his forehead. I won't go into details about the race, but if you want to know more, there is another blog you can read that will have a more in depth analysis of the competition and debauchery that took place. So check that in a few days for some fun stories.

Today is my birthday and of course I do have a run planned. Chris and I will be meeting up after work to hit the pavement for a few miles. Amanda got me some sweet new cold weather running gear for my birthday so if it gets nippy out, I'll be toasty. I probably won't be going for long distance today, or even a fast time for that matter. My legs just won't feel up to it after Saturday's race.

I have also decided on a charity to give all of your donations to. Several days after beginning this venture, I was thinking about how this money would be best served. I was thinking that there are a lot of cancer research facilities, but not all of them have programs to help folks pay for the expensive treatment. I've had extended stays in hospitals before and can tell you first hand that they are not cheap, and if you don't have insurance, there can be a LOT of zeroes attached to a bill. So I wanted your donations to go to help people who probably can't afford to pay for the treatment that could save their lives. I couldn't really find an organization that did only that, but I found a couple that were close to the mark.

Several years ago I learned that a girl I graduate high school with has a son who was diagnosed with cancer as an infant. She and her family spent lots of time at the St. Jude's Hospital and, from what I can tell, had only great things to say about it. St. Jude's not only treats children with cancer, but also finds ways to make the treatment as affordable as possible, so that is where your donations will go.

If you would like more information on St. Jude's, visit their website, and if you know someone who has first hand experiences with them, ask them about it.

This excerpt is pulled straight from their website:

St. Jude is the only pediatric cancer research center where families never pay for treatment not covered by insurance. No child is ever denied treatment because of the family’s inability to pay.

You can't beat that.