As some of you know, I had signed up to do my second half marathon at the Sussans womens run yesterday, well before my foot injury from the Melbourne half marathon in October. My foot has been ok, it gave me some grief during the City2Sea & Eureka climb, but held up pretty well afterwards.
I went to change my distance to the 10km but the bibs had already been sent so I could only change on the day. After chatting with my sister, she suggested to leave it at the half and see how I was feeling during the race, worst case, pull out at 10kms. Great idea!
Sharon & I got to the event & did our pre race rouitne of toilet and bag drop & then we were lucky enough to find Sarah & Katherine right before the start of the race. Sarah was running her first 10km & I really wanted to see her to wish her all the best.
The start wasn't the best, there were so many walkers all spread out along the road, we had to go up on the kerb to pass them. Sharon left me at her usual 1km mark - she is 1-2 minutes per km quicker than me - then Sarah & I stuck together until around the 3-4km mark when I encouraged Sarah to go ahead as my foot had started to hurt.
Shortly after that, I helped a lady get her hat which had flown right past me down a side street & then I had a couple of people pass me who had read my dedication bib for the day & say to me "sorry for your loss & good on you for doing this, keep going" - I dedicated yesterdays run to a high school friend who passed away last year from breast cancer, leaving behind a husband, young toddler & also a 7 month old - very sad. It made me really emotional. From there, it was a battle for me to get my head in the right place to even continue running without being emotional about Judy. I then had to stop & put some voltaren on my knee - it's obviously compensating for my foot & that had started to hurt too. I'd decided at the 8km mark that there was no way I'd be able to complete that second lap & get that second half mara, so I just followed the 10km markers to the finish. It was officially my worst ever 10km 1:20:10 - even worse than the dreaded Emma & Toms run that I did last year which was 1:10 & I was disappointed back then. So you can imagine how frustrated I was!
I received my finishers medal & managed a smile at the end then went to find Sarah, Katherine & Paula who had all done really well - big Congrats to Sarah for completing her first 10km, I'm sure there will now be many more to come! I then waited for my sister to finish her half mara & got chatting to an old lady who had walked the 10km & was waiting for her daughter to finish her half marathon.
I saw Sharon come across the line, absolutely spent & gave her a big hug from over the gates. She is a marvel for doing her 3rd half mara, and knocking time off of each one, mind you! So proud to be her sister!
So, I have decided & did decide during the last 3kms of that run, that I need to concentrate on smaller runs until my foot is back to 100% again. Or even do more cycling or eliptical work which will take the load from my foot so that I can still continue to lose weight. I'm seeing my physio tomorrow so I'll see what he suggests & I may even go for that MRI to see what's going on in my foot - even though it will cost around $300 as it's not covered by anything it seems - I think I need to rule out any stress fractures for sure. I'm not liking that this foot injury is now affecting my knee.
I am also hoping to participate in the 60km Weekend to end womens cancer walk with my sister in March 2014, so I really need to know what's going on with my foot to decide if I can attempt that weekend & what steps I need to take to get there - no pun intended!
Yes, this post is a stark contrast to my last post about Bikram, which I received a lot of feedback that a few of you really enjoyed it, but we all have our days, even me.
I'm off to another Bikram class tonight - that should at least get me giggling again.
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