Runfessions – June Edition

I am linking up with Marcia’s Healthy Slice for our monthly Runfessions.

My first (and most painful) runfession is about this:

This happened in the XTERRA Big Elk Trail Half Marathon in June. When we had run about half a mile, I placed my left foot on the side of a rock and turned my ankle. Pain shot through my leg. I couldn’t put any weight on my left foot. My hubby Bill and I were running together, and we both moved off the trail as best we could so that other runners could pass. He asked me if I thought I would be able to continue the race. I have never DNF’d before, but I thought this might be my first time. I told him that I wanted to try to walk a little bit. I knew if I could put weight on that foot, I could continue.

I walked gingerly at first, then began running slowly. My ankle felt alright. Not 100%, but not too painful. I told Bill I could continue. We did finish the race. It was only after the race when we were at a picnic in a friend’s back yard that it started to swell up, and I could only move by hobbling. My son, who has had experience with turned ankles, advised me to R.I.C.E. (rest, ice, compress, elevate) and I did. I was back to running within two days. I runfess, I was very relieved that I did not cause damage by running 12.5 miles after I injured my ankle.

 

 

The goofy expression on my face is because the RD just told us that we had to jump off the podium for a picture. I was hoping my tender ankle could take the landing!

 

 

My second runfession comes from the same race. Those of you who have read my blog before know of my, um, slightly competitive nature. In this race, I was running with Bill, enjoying the race and the beautiful scenery, thankful that my ankle wasn’t too bad, (little did I know…) not really thinking about competition or my finish time. When we stopped and moved to the side of the trail, almost everyone in the race passed us. We slowly regained our original position, but it is difficult to pass on single track.

At mile 12, Bill inexplicably picked up the pace. He sometimes does that at the end of a race because he gets into an “I just want to be done” mode. I followed him, and soon saw the reason for his burst of speed – we passed a man who was probably in our age group. We passed several other people too, including a woman who looked to be about our age. After the race, I found out that she was in my age group. I runfess, I am lucky that I followed Bill. I would not have won my age group if it was not for him.

My final runfession for the month is that I got lost while running trails with a friend. We decided to run a local trail called the Conestoga. There are many good trails near our small town, and this was one I had never done before. The Conestoga trail is mostly single track, has some road crossings and is marked with orange blazes.

Almost immediately upon starting, we encountered a big log across our path. It was no problem to climb over the log, however, so we continued. We had not gone far when another tree blocked the trail. We circumnavigated it and kept running. The trail was sometimes difficult to follow. A few times, we got to a point where it seemed to disappear into the vegetation, but we always found an orange blaze and kept going.

Another tree blocked the trail, and we had to actually climb through the downed tree to continue. When we got to the other side of the tree, all semblance of a path disappeared. There was nothing to do but retrace our steps. Unfortunately, that was easier said than done. There were several places where, on our return trip, the trail branched into two trails indistinguishable from each other. We had a 50% chance of guessing the correct one, and we hadn’t seen an orange blaze in over half an hour. We were undeniably lost.

We eventually came out to a familiar road about a quarter mile from the trail we were supposed to be on and made it back to our cars scratched, sweaty, bug-bitten and happy. I runfess, the unexpected detours turned our one hour run into a two hour one.

These are all the runfessions I have for this month. I feel so much better. Runfession is good for the soul!