On the Mend

Good news: I've logged in 2 runs since my last entry and although I was slow, I was almost pain free!

I spoke to a college friend the other day who was in the same athletic training program I was in, who is actually a certified athletic trainer now. He gave me a few good suggestions on exercises and stretches I could do to prepare for a run that would help me with my achilles. Let me tell you.... AWESOME. I totally forgot what a REAL stretch could do for the body.... I was able to really open up my stride and I didn't feel so stiff. I was really happy with my last 2 runs.

The bummer about running right now is that a week from today, I'll be on a plane to southern California. I really don't have much time left to train. All the training that I can do now is all under 10 miles and I feel incredibly unprepared for the challenge I plan on taking on next Sunday. I'm slow because I've been off for 2 weeks, and I'm sort of dreading how my body is going to feel when it's all over and done with.

I am SO nervous for this event coming up. I don't know if that's because I feel unprepared, or if it's because it's my first marathong. I was so concerned about my leg and the pain and swelling that I think it really got to my head. I even begged my doctor for some sort of magical injection into my leg so I wouldn't feel the pain for the race. Seriously, I did. She said no. I also begged a friend of mine to mail me some top of the line pain killers, but since it's a felony to mail prescription meds, we had to let that one go too.... It looks like I'll be popping ibuprofen like candy next weekend, but anything to get me through this! (All kidding aside, because I'm sure my mother is reading this and is starting to become concerned that I'm addicted to narcotics, we weren't really going to try and mail meds. But I really DID beg my doc for an injection).

Anyway, I'm definitely "on the mend" and I'm excited/nervous about everything coming up. It should be good!

For Christmas this year, I got a Flip camera (Have you seen those things?! Totally cool video camera!!), and I'm planning on doing a little clip of me and my best friend preparing for the race the night before and then talking about it after. I'm hoping to have someone record us crossing the finish line too, but it'll probably be really crowded. Plus, my bestie will be crossing that finish line about 5 years ahead of me, so the camera might actually run out of batteries. We'll what we can come up with. Should be good. Entertaining at the least....

UNTIL NEXT TIME....