Saying Goodbye

So I wasn't entirely sure I was going to run the full marathon until the day before the race. I had some hip pain as I had mentioned, but the biggest difficulty for me was saying goodbye to a pet of mine. I had Hobbes for his entire life, a third of mine and lost him quite unexpectedly. He showed no signs of sickness, I actually took him into the vet for litter box issues and it was determined that he had really aggressive cancer that really couldn't be fought.

I had no idea how to deal with this because this little guy had become one of my best friends. I had formed this attachment to him that I couldn't quite explain to anyone. I don't have kids so essentially Hobbes was one of my kids. I loved this guy to death. Losing him with no notice really shook me to my core. I had no time to brace myself and no idea how to cope with his loss. I found myself still saying his name and found our other cat walking around looking for him. It seemed like we all needed some time.

I was really quite upset about the whole situation and wasn't sure if I was in the right mindset to run a marathon, and run it completely alone. Something came over me the day before the race, though. I found myself packing a cooler and race bag before I even realized what was happening. I told my husband that I was doing this race for our buddy. Hobbes had this funny habit of running up on the bed or couch and laying directly on my legs after every race. I always joked that he thought he was the secret to my recovery. He was like a nice 18 lb heating pad. When I got to that race I knew I was going to be fine running it and finishing it after I met up with a pacer. I honestly didn't even question my ability to finish and that was one of my happiest races.

It's all lost

Hey guys! I'm sorry for the long term disappearance. I was trying to redesign the website at the same time my computer decided to die :( It ultimately ended up in me losing all posts. I felt like it was such a huge undertaking to try to repost everything. I also thought there was a chance I could save everything on the computer, which didn't happen. Long story short, I'm back.

I've had an awesome summer of running. It started with the Buffalo Half Marathon over Memorial Day weekend. I ended up backing off from the full marathon and only doing the half. I'm really thankful I did that because I had been battling tendonitis in my foot. It ended up being a really difficult race for me, but I finished. I was originally running with a coworker of mine trying to sub 2 the half, but I had to tell him to go ahead about 2 miles in when my foot tightened up. It felt like I could barely put weight on it so I backed off my pace and sort of ran/limped through the next 11 miles. It was a slow race for me, but as always it was amazing weather and a great atmosphere.



I took some time off to focus on training strong after that. My next goal was lofty. I had designed a half, full, half all within 13 days. I felt great as I neared the first race which was the Biggest Loser half in downtown Buffalo over Labor Day weekend. I ran strong, but about halfway through the race I noticed some tightness in my right hip flexor. I took a couple of days off to recover for my full that was only a week later.

The full marathon was what I was most nervous about. It was my second full marathon, ever. It was also the first race I was attending completely alone. I woke up at 2:45am, got myself dressed, ate breakfast and headed down to Erie by 3:30am. I got there around 5:30, which was good as the parking lots in Presque Isle had flooded, so parking took a lot longer than anticipated. I picked up my bib and lined up. It was already almost 7am and the race was about to start. I extremely excited that I saw a 5:25 pacer as there are never pacers near the back of the pack with me. Bob and his wife Lesley ended up carrying me through the first 21 miles. He was arguably the best pacer I've ever had the pleasure of running with. My hip felt tight the first five miles or so, but around that point it felt like everything just let go and loosened up. After that I held steady until 21 or so. I hit a mini wall there. I call it a mini wall because it was nowhere near the wall I hit in the first full. I walked a little bit, had some OJ and started right back up running. After I crossed I drove back home two hours to watch the Bills win :)

I took almost the full six days off of running to the third and final race in this thirteen day madness. By the time I hit this race, though, I knew I was fairly injured because the hip flexor pain was prominent while I was walking around too. I ran the third race really slow. It was the Mighty Niagara in Lewiston last weekend. It's supposed to be a downhill, fast race. It ended up being my slowest race because I was babying my right side. It was hot, muggy and raining off and on. I worked the next day and knew I would need to take some time off running, just not sure how much time. I tried to run again yesterday after 2 solid rest days and barely made it 2 miles. So for right now I'm doing Jillian Michaels 30 day shred praying that I will wake up tomorrow miraculously healed.

Interestingly enough I've been reading the best stretches involve contracting the hip flexor instead of relaxing them. This apparently causes the glutes and hamstrings to work more which conversely loosens up the hips. I'll be trying this and foam rolling every night. Send me positive vibes :)