The bonus was it was a gorgeous morning and Sherene brought Kenji, her Labradinger, who is always entertaining!

And, because I can, here are the splits:

Mile 1 - 10:27
Mile 2 - 10:20
Mile 3 - 10:15
Mile 4 - 9:57
Last 0.19 miles - 9:16

A good pace, I just wish it wasn’t so creaky. 

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 07/03/2009
• Time: 07:00:00
• Total Time: 00:42:44.00
• Calories: 445
• Distance: 4.19 miles
• Average Pace: 10:12.24/mile

I was pretty nervous how it would all turn out.  I had been struggling with foot problems a few weeks earlier and, by the time that was resolved, I didn’t have enough time to get the mileage needed to be secure that I would finish the race.  Up until race day, the furthest I had trained for was 8 miles.

To be honest, the first 9 miles of the race were awesome. The weather was perfect, the bands were interesting, and even Jeff & the kids came out to wish me luck between mile 7 and 8.  I fueled at mile 7, and things seemed to be going well.

At mile 10, my foot problems resurfaced.  My feet started to swell, which caused the tape on my left foot to start cutting into the skin.  Almost simultaneously the bursa sack under the ball of my right foot became inflamed and all of a sudden each stride became amazingly painful.  Somehow I managed to muscle through 2 more miles before having to walk.  The last mile took me 18 minutes.

For the first time ever while running an I felt defeated and sad. I admit now I had high expectations that I would finish somewhere around 2:30.  I have never had my body break down on me in such an obvious and sudden way.  I knew I would cross the finish line, but it wasn’t the way I wanted it to happen.

Sherene continued on ahead and finished just over 2:30.  Nearly 15 minutes later I followed.

I have my medal and the pride that comes with finishing such a long race.  I also should be proud that I ran every hill in the course (with the exception of the short but ultra steep transition from Lake Washington Blvd to I-90).  And yet, I’m still dissapointed.  I didn’t expect it to be easy, but finishing alone and in so much pain wasn’t quite what I wanted for my race experience.

So, I’ve already decided to do it again next year.  The plan is to maintain my base all year long and maybe run for time next year.  Now that the course isn’t so scary, I’m wondering if I can break that 2:30 barrier.

Anyway, overall it was a fun experience.  I just personally wish I had done better.  Here are my semi-respectable splits:

Mile 1 - 11:49
Mile 2 - 11:51
Mile 3 - 12:08
Mile 4 - 11:52
Mile 5 - 12:03
Mile 6 - 11:33
Mile 7 - 11:39
Mile 8 - 11:47
Mile 9 - 11:27
Mile 10 - 12:27
Mile 11 - 11:33
Mile 12 - 11:38
Mile 13 - 18:13 (*sigh*)

I did take lots of pictures. You can enjoy them here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/kimayars/2009RnR

And yes, we did see a bald eagle!

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 06/27/2009
• Time: 07:30:00
• Total Time: 2:44:00.00
• Calories: 1197
• Distance: 13.1 miles
• Average Pace: 12:31.57/mile

I can’t really say anything bad about the run.  I felt strong, loved our pace, and it was a beautiful course.   There was no foot pain (I did my usual preventative measure of taping and Advil). Sherene’s occasional outbursts of profanity provided the entertainment. 

The splits:

Mile 1 - 10:26
Mile 2 - 10:28
Mile 3 - 10:07
Mile 4 - 10:00
Mile 5 - 9:55
Mile 6 - 9:59
Last 0.28 miles - 9:17

I know I’m not prepared for the half next Saturday, but there’s not much I can do except keep myself healthy. It is what it is.

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 06/20/2009
• Time: 09:00:00
• Total Time: 1:03:32.00
• Calories: 662
• Distance: 6.28 miles
• Average Pace: 10:07.08/mile

Saturday I’m running the Fall City Days 10k with Sherene to begin my “taper” (which is hilarious, since I feel like I’ve been tapering for several weeks now).  I hope I have enough in me to make a decent show at the half marathon next Saturday.  I will be happy with anything under 3 hours at this point!

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 06/16/2009
• Time: 05:30:00
• Total Time: 1:24:47.00
• Calories: 884
• Distance: 8 miles
• Average Pace: 10:36.04/mile

The bonus is my foot feels great!  I feel like I have a small bruise, but nothing that slowed me down. I did tape it and take two Advil before the run, so maybe my preventative measures helped.

What I loved about his run was it was a push, but I felt great for most of the run.  I haven’t enjoyed running for a few weeks now, so this was refreshing.  Perfect temp, nice pace, and a good stretch.  I’ll take tomorrow off and try and get another medium-distance run on Monday.

Oh, and I passed 100 miles for the year! Yay! (And I just realzied I ran 25 miles this week!)

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 06/13/2009
• Time: 07:00:00
• Total Time: 1:16:28.00
• Calories: 797
• Distance: 7.03 miles
• Average Pace: 10:52.17/mile

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 06/11/2009
• Time: 10:00:00
• Total Time: 1:20:00.00
• Calories: 834
• Distance: 7 miles
• Average Pace: 11:25.71/mile

I have to remember that this is supposed to be fun. Well, fun-ish.  I have to remember there will be bands, lots of people, and plus the rights to say that I ran from Tukwila to Seattle. Not to mention the shiny medal at the end… 

So now it’s a question of how hard can I push myself without injury.  How smart can I train? Time to Google…

The run itself was a bit grueling, although it was what I was looking for. Because the treadmills top out at an hour, I broke it up into two 3-mile runs with a 1 minute walk betweeen to reset the treadmill.  The first two miles were stiff, but I had a good rhythm until the last 1.5 miles. Those last 1.5 miles were the “heavy-leg-push-yourself” kind of run. Overall I’m happy with it. Sherene joined me and it was nice to have her by my side.

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 06/10/2009
• Time: 17:45:00
• Total Time: 1:03:00.00
• Calories: 657
• Distance: 6 miles
• Average Pace: 10:30.47/mile

So, as my previous posts have mentioned, I have been dealing with foot pain for the past three weeks. On bad days I can barely put pressure on it. On good days  I only have a slight limp.  I finally made the decsion that I was going to go into “pain management” mode so I could get through the Rock ‘n Roll Half Marathon.  Come Hell or high water I am going to run that baby.  I’ll fix the foot later.

So after two not-so-fun runs on Thursday and Friday, I took Saturday off.  I continued to ice the foot and keep a low dose of Advil on board to keep any swelling down.  Sunday, I returned from my convention and headed to the gym.  Jeff suggested 3 miles to keep things moving but not put a lot of strain on it.

I arrived at the gym and selected my instrument of pain, er, I mean treadmill.  I did my usual 5min walk to warm up. The foot seemed angrier than Friday.  I broke into an easy 11min/mile pace, turned the headphones way up, and prepared to muscle through an agonizing run.

At mile 1.46, my worst fears started to surface.  The pain in my foot was increasing at a rapid rate and moving down the outside of my foot. I started to hobble as the pain started at my pinky toe and with every stride moved toward my heel. I had just made the decsion to call the run when I felt this snap on the outside of my foot.  The next stride was pain free. Are you kidding me?

Of course, being the optimist that I am, I immediately thought there was a massive and sudden swelling in my foot which cut off all blood supply which in turn, stopped any sensation in my foot.  Screw it, I haven’t run pain free in three weeks. I’m going to keep going…

Before I knew it, 3 miles turned into 5.  And what I loved about it was I was still fresh afterwards, even though I pushed out a sub-10min pace. Boo-yah!

I’m now in search of a semi-agressive training plan to try and get my miles up as quickly as possible before the 27th.  But happily, I know now that I won’t have to limp through the race.  I’ve done 9, so in theory that means that I’ll finish the half. There are some hills I’ll have to walk, but I had already made the decsion to do that anyway.

I am still mystified about what was up with the foot. Is it possible to have a subfluxation in your foot?  I suppose, but it seems weird.  I friend of mine who does tri’s said the same thing happened to her.  She recommended rolling my feet after each run (kind of like how I roll my ITB).  Even if it doesn’t work it will sure feel good!  The only evidence there was ever a problem is that there is bruise developing where the “snap” occured.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this is the end of my foot troubles!

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 06/07/2009
• Time: 15:00:00
• Total Time: 00:49:41.00
• Calories: 575
• Distance: 5 miles
• Average Pace: 9:56.03/mile

The foot is definitely more sore today than yesterday, but still tolerable.  Instead of going away, it stayed constant the whole run.  I made the decision that if it got worse, then I would quit.  But it didn’t.  There was no change in my big toe.

I think I’m going to be stuck on the treadmill for a while.   Can feel myself changing my gait to accomodate the toe (which is what I think is causing the other foot problem).  If I run with even pressure across my foot, things don’t get quite so angry. It’s easier to feel that on the flat surface of the tradmill instead of on the trail. We’ll see how it goes. I would so much rather run on the trail.

The new shoes are comfy and I haven’t had any blisters resurface. Yay!

I’m now off to Yakima (2 hours away) for a convention over the weekend.  I think I’m going to try and ice my foot while I drive — since it’s my left, in theory that shouldn’t be a problem. (Except that I just realized that I’m going to take a car with a standard transmission.)

My next goal is 5 miles on Saturday. I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 06/05/2009
• Time: 09:00:00
• Total Time: 00:44:00.00
• Calories: 459
• Distance: 4 miles
• Average Pace: 11:00.55/mile

3:00 - pick up Samantha
3:25 - pick up Veronica
4:00 - drop Samantha off at gymnastics
4:30 - take Veronica to swimming
5:15 - swimming ends, load up Veronica
5:30 - pick up Samantha at gymnastics
6:00 - quick dinner at McDonald’s
6:30 - dress rehearsal for Veronica’s ballet class
7:30 - home

Blech.

So when I got home, Jeff was already there.  I told him that I was freaking out about not running.  He suggested I go squeeze a run in (the gym closes at 9pm) but he made me promise that I would walk if my foot started to hurt.  So, I grabbed my Sansa, put on my new shoes (Asics! I’ve been a Mizuno fan for so long, this will be an interesting change.), and dashed to the gym.  I got there at 8:15 — plenty of time to get it done before 9:00. 

I walked for 5min, stretched, then started the run at 5.0 mph.  That felt relatively easy, so I upped it to 5.5 mph after about a 1/2 mile.

Let me just say, that when you are the only person in the gym, it is really creepy.  I never saw an employee or a warm body. At least I got to watch some TV — “Get Me Out of Here: I’m a Celebrity” was pretty lame but it at least kept me distracted.

So, the foot…

I think the foot fared well.  The outside of my foot felt a little achy to begin with, but went away the first 1/4 mile.  The big toe (which has always beens sore) continued to be sore. It never got any worse or better. I came home and iced it for about an hour, and so far there has been no change. Big toe is still tender, but the soreness on the outside of my foot hasn’t reappeared. We’ll see what happens when my foot thaws… 

So I’m optimistic that things will continue to improve if I can not get all crazy and try and overdo it.  My task at hand is to try and figure out how I can be the best I can be at the 1/2 marathon in 3 weeks without makng things worse.  If you have a suggestion, I’d love to hear it!

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 06/04/2009
• Time: 20:00:00
• Total Time: 00:34:00.00
• Calories: 354
• Distance: 3 miles
• Average Pace: 11:20.53/mile