Early last month I signed up for a race that I said I’d never do. I alluded to it in a post here, and I’m just now getting to post the details:
…
Also, I signed up this week for a run that I’d said I’d never do. More on that later…
I got in to trail running five years ago specifically in order to train for the Pikes Peak Ascent. I’ve since trained and raced on that mountain nearly a dozen times now, including three “official” Ascents capped by my Ascent/Marathon “Doubler” last summer. This coming weekend is the 2022 PPA/PPM, but I was always planning to skip this year anyway (but I digress…)
The point is that I “tried” doing some road runs earlier in life, and “kinda liked it” but didn’t really love it, so I migrated to other sports (especially cycling).
To qualify for my first Pikes Peak, however, it was necessary for me to run a half marathon in 2:25. So I found a nice flat road half, got good road shoes, trained for the event properly and ran a solid (but conservative) 2:19. As a new runner, though, that was still my longest run, and my legs and feet were pretty tired after the race. So much so I proclaimed “I don’t ever need to run that far ON ROAD again”. I wanted to stick to trails where the impact is less and the scenery is more interesting.
Since then I’ve gone on to completing 3 trail marathons in the last year including one 50k ultra and the aforementioned PPA/PPM Doubler.
Well, someone talked me in to signing up for a road marathon. It’s a biggie, the Marine Corps Marathon in DC, but I’ve heard so many good things about it that I was intrigued, and it fit well into my event/training calendar. It’s the last Sunday in October. 6 weeks and 3 days from today, by the way.
I was already in good fitness with solid distance. I’d gotten to the point where I was running at least one “half” each month in training or as a race.
Then a week after signing up, I sprained my ankle. It was a moderate (Grade 2) sprain, lots of swelling and it required crutches for several weeks to keep weight off of it. But (despite one early setback) it progressed nicely and by four weeks post-injury I was mixing in some moderate distance hiking (with poles to manage weight/impact) and also light bicycling to assist the rehab.
Hiked 10km at altitude 8 days ago.
All tracking along nicely to ramp right in to the final 8 weeks or so. But, then, I was in a car accident! Good news is there seems to be no serious injury, or that the prognosis for full recovery is good. Bad news for my marathon is the training just got way more complicated!
My only injury (besides the ankle which is now at least 90% good) is a lower back stiffness which is slowly but steadily improving. But one week post injury, I just did my first jogging test and it will be another week at least before I do anything resembling a serious training “run”.
I know (or at least I feel) that I could complete the full marathon “today” even if I had to walk 75% of it. So I’m still “all-in” on the event. And even if I’m not back to 100%— a marathon “PR” should still be in reach (because all my marathons so far have been so insanely technical or steep on trails)
So that’s what’s next for me. Ironically my test run Tuesday on the trail felt great as long as I was on the soft Sandy portions of the trail. The harder packed portions and road crossings were rather “uncomfortable” on the back. So one day at a time, we’ll see how it goes, maybe I can somehow get it under 4 1/2.
Thanks for reading.
