I have some great news, my friends: I ran 14 miles on Saturday and my foot felt fine!!! 🙂
Thank you to all of you for the helpful advice! After reading all the comments, I decided that if my foot still hurt when I got up on Saturday I would do a pool run instead of a normal run. If it didn’t hurt or I just barely felt it, I would attempt a shorter run (I was supposed to do 20 miles for Richmond marathon training but I knew that wasn’t a good idea) with a bail-out option in case it hurt once I started.
When I woke up on Saturday, my foot felt pretty good, surprisingly, so I tried on my usual Brooks running shoes and ran in place like a weirdo in our kitchen in my PJs for a second. It actually felt okay, which was a big improvement from last week, and even from Friday when just putting on my Brooks hurt. I have no idea what all of a sudden made it better, but I wasn’t going to question it. I texted my marathon training buddy Kathleen that I was in for a shorter version of our run, potentially doing the second half in the pool depending how I felt. We made plans to meet up on the National mall at 10 a.m.
Just before I headed out, our college buddy Sarah texted me. We’ve had a VERY rainy and gloomy week here in DC, and Saturday was pretty gross, too. Sarah texted me with “This weather is making it very hard for me to go for a run.” I agreed, and said that Kathleen and I were meeting down on the national mall 30 minutes later to run if she wanted to join us. Perfect timing! Gloomy runs with friends > gloomy runs alone. 🙂 Our party of 2 was up to a party of 3, and a half hour later, we met up, happy to be outside after a week mostly indoors.
It was actually a nice morning to be out for a run – it was pretty soggy and there was some light rain/mist (my Run Happy visor was great to keep the rain out of my eyes), but it was actually kind of refreshing once we got going and it meant we had the area practically to ourselves! It was so quiet and peaceful out. Normally 10 a.m. down on the national mall on a weekend in October it is a mad house!
The three of us headed off towards the tidal basin and the Jefferson Memorial, me very hopeful that my foot would be okay and practically giddy because I was so happy to be back out and about and running with friends. It had only been a week but I’d missed it so much! Plus, I hadn’t seen Kathleen in two weeks since I missed our long training run last weekend. I’d missed her, too!
The monuments all have barriers in front of them right now because of the furlough – so ridiculous.
My foot felt pretty good when we started the run – I felt it a little bit but it felt way better than it had the day before, and by about a quarter mile in it felt totally normal. I crossed my fingers and we kept going, heading down into Hains Point.
It was so peaceful on Hains Point on Saturday morning! There were only a few of us out there and everything was very misty and mysterious looking.
The miles flew by as the three of us chatted and caught up on life, and before we knew it we were back at the tidal basin, where we stopped for a quick stretch.
From there, we headed along the water, almost to Georgetown, and then up into Rock Creek Park. Sarah said farewell and ran on towards home when we hit P Street, so Kathleen and I were on our own. I was still feeling good, so we decided to keep going and turn around just before mile 10, which would have us back on the national mall at about 14 miles.
Rock Creek has a bunch of fun workout stations, so Kathleen and I stopped to test our pull up strength. 😉 I can do one pull up from a total dead hang position now. YAY!! Thanks, CrossFit. (Although I haven’t been great about going to CrossFit lately because of marathon training, oops.)
Kathleen, on the other hand… hehe. We might need to work on her arm strength. 😉
After looping back the same way we came, we exited Rock Creek and ran along the soggy waterfront back towards the national mall.
By the time we got close to finishing, my legs were getting super tired. 14 miles was plenty for me. I was just so excited to have made it that far with my foot totally fine! Yay!!!
Splits:
- Mile 1: 9:12
- Mile 2: 9:16
- Mile 3: 9:02
- Mile 4: 9:12
- Mile 5: 9:15
- Mile 6: 9:22
- Mile 7: 9:18
- Mile 8: 9:33
- Mile 9: 9:39
- Mile 10: 9:22
- Mile 11: 9:09
- Mile 12: 9:02
- Mile 13: 9:13
- Mile 14: 9:06
Total overall time: 2 hours, 9 minutes, 50 seconds. Average overall pace: 9:16 minute/miles.
When I got home, I hopped right into an ice bath, and I’m happy to report that I felt good on Sunday – my foot felt fine, too. I have no idea what was going on last week or why it suddenly got better but I’m thinking that the long bike ride last weekend was to blame, not running too much. The ride was super hilly and lots of pressure on my foot because I have cages on my pedals – I think it must have been smushing my outer foot and bruised it? I’m thinking no more biking until after the marathon just to be safe.
I’m planning to get back to my usual Tuesday/Thursday morning run routine this week, although I don’t think I’ll be too intense about mileage, just in case. Fingers crossed I’m okay from here on out… if my foot starts hurting again, I will absolutely go see someone to get it checked out, but for now, I’m hoping it’s resolved. We’ll see! I’ll keep you guys updated.
The next challenge is that I’m doing the Tough Mudder on Saturday with a bunch of friends. Our plan: a) have fun, b) take it slow, c) DO NOT TWIST AN ANKLE. I realize it’s probably stupid to do a Tough Mudder a month out from my first full marathon, but I signed up for it before I decided to do the marathon and I got a bunch of friends on board, too, so I can’t bail. I’m hoping I can come out sore but fine! My training buddy Kathleen is doing it too, so we’re planning to be suuuuper cautious the whole time.
Hope you all had a nice weekend! Any great runs or race reports to share?
