Planes, Trains, and Running Shoes

I didn't write a training recap last week.

Training just hadn't been going the way I had wanted to and, as I mentioned Thursday, I had all but resigned myself to dropping from the race.

Then, I realized how badly I wanted to run this race. How much I wanted to run a hometown marathon. How much I love the Marine Corps Marathon. How many of my friends would be out there on the course cheering from me.

I need to run this race.

I didn't run this weekend. I woke up screaming in the middle of Friday night with a Charlie Horse that kept me sidelined for the next 2 days.

Yesterday morning, I got up and headed out to run 18 miles. This was it. I was going to finish no matter how hard it was. I was finally motivated.

So I headed out. I started on the Mount Vernon Trail, crossed the Key Bridge into Georgetown, looped around the Lincoln Memorial and made may way out to Hains Point.

I felt great. I was maintaining an excellent pace and started visualizing the rest of the run, the rest of training, and the race itself.

At Mile 8.5, my knee started hurting...in the same lock-up way it did back in June when I first injured myself. I stopped and stretched for a bit, re-laced my show laces, adjusted my IT Band strap and continued on. Every few steps, this kept going. I made it to 10 miles before the pain was so severe, I couldn't take another step.

Then, I had to walk 2.5 miles to the nearest Metro station to get myself home.

I got home and made an emergency acupuncture appointment. I had some errands to run beforehand and it hurt just to walk. Acupuncture gave me some relief but when I took the dog out later that night, I wasn't in good shape at all.

This sucks. I'm behind in my training as it is. I got a major pep talk from some friends and The Pilot this weekend and was finally feeling like I could run this race.

I have no idea how long this is going to sideline me but I'm crushed. For three weeks, I couldn't get myself out the door to run, I finally got motivated to finish training and this happens.

Today, I'm going for a 30 minute leg massage to try and work out what feels like an enormous golf ball in the side of my leg. I'm hoping that by tomorrow or Thursday I can head out for an easy run and get back into it.

We'll see. I'm not so optimistic anymore. What I do know though is that my work schedule is changing next week and will be much more flexible which means that if I need to head out for a long run on a Tuesday morning, I can. I'm hoping that that flexibility works in my favor and that I'll be able to toe the line on October 27.

Send love, prayers and thoughts for a rapid recovery for me.