Week 15 – Another High Mileage
I am going to start this post by ranting a little bit. This is still fresh in my mind so I want to get it out there. I ran into my someone I know earlier and he asked me how my Portland Half went. I said — it was awesome! Then he asked me about my time. I answered proudly – 2 hours 46 minutes. He gave me this look and continued said – wow, that’s pretty slow. Did ya walk it? I was in shock and completely speechless with that comment. I didn’t even know what to say and almost mumble and try to justified my time, but then I quickly become mad. Really, really mad. My tears started to welled up in my eyes and to avoid any awkward situation, I made up some excuse and walk away. Then I got even more mad. I worked really really hard for my half and I am proud with my accomplishment. My time might not be the most awesome one for others, but it was for me and to have the nerve to ask if I walked it, that just plain rude. I did the course. It doesn’t matter if I run it, walk it, or run/walk it. I did the whole 13.1 miles. The entire thing!
I am surrounded by awesome people around me and sometimes I forget that there are rude and not nice person out there. The one that like to question your accomplishment and put you down for all the hard work you did. I let that kind of person get to me and question my own accomplishment. Even for a few seconds!
Allright, enough ranting. I feel better. I mentioned this incident to my #sqlrun ladies and I love that they are angry for me. Thank you for being a continuous supporter for me.
Monday:
I was feeling under the weather and even stayed home from work, so I didn’t do any work out
Tuesday:
I was still feeling blah and decided to just do an easy run around the neighborhood. I did 3 miles loop around the my girls’s school and feel okay afterward
Wednesday:
Did 30 minutes walk around my office. It was a gorgeous day out
Thursday:
I decided to hit the gym and did 3 miles on the treadmill. I felt great
Friday:
Rest
Saturday:
Big day. It took me over two hours from the moment I got up to the time that I actually laced my running shoes. It didn’t really want to go out and run. It was a 35 degrees morning! Facing with the thought of having to explain to my #sqlrun peeps on why I didn’t do my run, I sucked it up and hit the trail.
Gorgeous day to run
I started with a steady pace, a bit slower than normal. Thanks to my new Zensah Compression Sleeves, my shins felt really good and I didn’t even feel any pain on it. It was beautiful on the trail. The ground covered with orange leaf and it was absolutely stunning. Before long, I hit the first mile and shortly after, I stepped on slippery rock under the leaf and as I balance myself, I twisted my ankle really bad. The sharp pain shoot from my ankle towards my hips. I let out a big yelp, stopped and hunched over. I was supposed to run 17 miles!! I started walking, tried to shake the pain and continue running. I slow down my pace and felt okay in my ankle so I kept on going. Around mile 8, I started to feel some shooting pain again, and as I was trying to asses what it was, I tripped over a branch on the trail and almost fell! Fortunately, I regain my balance right away and didn’t injure myself in the process. I kept on running. I managed to get my focus back and maintain my pace. Around mile 11 – I felt the same shooting pain and I almost lost it. I was frustrated. I had 6 miles to go and I really didn’t want to quit it. Tears falling down on my cheek as I tried to motivated myself and push through the ankle pain. I started to feel other part of my leg, like quad and hamstring started to hurt. I must have been compensated the ankle pain and totally messed up my running form, in result, put me in the world of hurt.
I slowed down my run even more, and even take more walk break but I kept on going. At mile 15 – I broke down into tears. At that point, I was exhausted. The pain took so much energy out of me and I just want to be done. However, I didn’t want to quit so my stubbornness kinda took over. I took a deep breath and kept on running. At mile 16.5 – I had the pain pretty much everywhere on my left leg and I decided to walk the rest of the half mile. I power walked and finish the entire 17 miles.
It took me about an hour before it actually hit me. I just did 17 miles. I twisted my ankle, tripped on a branch, cried, curse and yell but by golly, I did 17 miles. Thank you for everybody who tweet me. You have no idea how big the different it made.
Sunday
I woke up very sore and stiff. I did my usual stretched, iced and even soaked my legs in a cold water – but boy, I was in the world of hurt. My ankle swollen and my whole quad, hamstring and shins on that leg are in pain. Not so much on the shins, thanks to my compression sleeves. I was limping around and couldn’t even put my weight on that leg. I stretched more, and more and took ibuprofen every 6 hours. I was whiny and miserable. Then Allen White (t) told me to go out and run in a slow pace for 2-3 miles. WHA? I mean. Seriously? You want me to run with THIS ankle? I was desperate though as I really need to feel somewhat decent, so I figured – allright, let me give it a try. If it hurts so bad, then I stop. So I went to the gym and started to walk on the treadmill. It was bad the first 10 minutes but then, my ankle, quad and hamstring started to relax and I cranked the treadmill up and started to run. A mile went by and another mile and before long — I hit 3 miles without even feel any pain. I stepped off the treadmill and didn’t feel a lot of pain. I felt so much better! I’m so glad that I listened Allen’s advice!!
Fundraising
I raised $1,425 total as of today! I’m so blessed to be have many generous and kind friends! I’m still far from my goal though, and still need a lot of help. Please visit my fundraising page at http://tinyurl.com/RobelMarathon to learn more about why I’m doing this.
I have learned not to tell my time to anyone. Yes, it’s on the race website, but running snobs (who often haven’t run a race for years) can do all their nay-saying not to my face that way.
I talk to people about the deltas – how I either beat or exceeded my time, or about PRs. But never the actual time unless the person was in the same race.
I once had a “real” runner tell me that anything over a 7 minute mile was just walking and that those of us who didn’t run that pace shouldn’t be allowed to enter races.
I’ve had others, whom I finished ahead of, complain about the “walk breaks” I take as being cheating “it’s not running”. Most people in long distance races take some walk breaks at some point. Not the elites, but races aren’t just about the elites.
I always wondered, though, while I finished ahead of people, why going slower made me a cheater.
Yanni, you do amazing things. I’m in awe. Don’t let one obliviot sit in your mind and tell you anything else.
Obliviot. Genius. That describe the individual very nicely.
Thank you for your continuous support!
Hugs.