I don’t even know where to start. Okay, how about the beginning. After a year of planning and being super excited, I will NOT be running the Rock n Roll 1/2 Marathon in Savannah on November 3rd. Just typing this is making me tear up.
So instead of my 1/2 marathon count being up to 4 by the end of the year, it will stay at 3.
As I’ve mentioned I hurt my back about 6 weeks ago. For the last 5 weeks I have been going to physical therapy. At first they were just working on strengthening my back, but then added in my hips as they realized the issues I have with them as well. Ever since I started PT they asked me to hold off on running for the time being. Finally, 2 weeks ago I asked when I could try running. My therapist told me that I could try, there in the office, on my next appointment. Unfortunately when I showed up for my next appointment she told me how they saw some issues with how I walk and wanted to work on those before I picked up the pace. Drats.
Finally on Thursday I asked her AGAIN about running. I didn’t want to be a pest, but with the 1/2 marathon barely 6 weeks away I needed to get running again. She told me I could run that day. HOORAY! I was to walk a couple minutes then run a couple, not going over 10 minutes. If she didn’t like what she saw or I was making any noises she didn’t like she would stop me. Deal. I made it through my full 10 minutes and ran about 3/4s of a mile. It wasn’t anything spectacular, but I felt great. I was pooped when I was done, but I still felt great. She made sure I did some stretching afterwards and then I did all my all therapy. I was good and sore when I left. She told me to hold off on doing any running on my own until we saw how I felt after. Okay, no problem.
*enter problem*
I woke up Friday and I was sore. My back was fine, but for the first time ever my hips were killing me. Oh and the back of my knees. Maybe it was because I hadn’t run in almost two months. Maybe it was because I ran AND did exercises. Maybe it was because the therapy was actually getting things back where they were SUPPOSED to be and my body wasn’t used to it. Regardless of the reasons I was sore and I didn’t like it.
Later that day I went to look at a potential place to move (my lease is up November 2 and I need somewhere else to live) and it looked like it might actually work out. I was talking on the phone to my mom and we were trying to figure out how to get me packed up and moved before the race. As if work, packing, and moving before the race wasn’t enough I also have a cousin’s baby shower the weekend before the race. As nicely as she could, my mom mentioned that maybe I shouldn’t do the race. I wasn’t where I wanted/needed to be physically, plus I had a lot on my plate with the upcoming move and baby shower. She told me if I still wanted to that we would make it work, but to seriously think about it.
Unfortunately the more I thought about it the more I knew she was right. Thinking about everything that I had to do before the race/my lease was up was stressful enough. But when you add in physical therapy and trying to train for the race… it was just too much. As much as I hated to, I needed to change my plans and back out of the race. The worst part was telling my friend/running buddy, who had just signed up a couple weeks before, that I was not going to be able to do the race. Thankfully she is AMAZING and took the news very well. She had to pull out of the NYC marathon, which is why she signed up for Savannah, so she understood what it was like to have to pull out of a race you really wanted to do. Thanks Karen 🙂
So there ya have it. No more 1/2 marathons in 2012 for Meghan.
There are 2 5k races in December that I really want to do, so hopefully in 2+ months I will at least be back to running my normal 3 miles. Maybe I can even squeeze in a 5k in November. Worst case scenario, I have a 10k scheduled for the first weekend of February. In the meantime I’ll just have to work on getting better and start looking into a 1/2 marathon to do in the spring. I may be done with 1/2 marathons for 2012, but I’m definitely not DONE for good.
