2017 Spring Update

I have been struggling to get a blog out, and for most of 2017 I have felt stuck.  But with a new goal, comes new passion, and all the exciting feelings.  Shortly after my last blog, my Step Dad was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer, and I couldn't seem to find anything to say aside from it was hard to accept, and I felt sadness.  Between back and forth trips to Mom and Sam's(my Step Dad) home things were going well, and training was coming along.   Sam started chemo, and seeing him tolerate it well helped me to feel hope.

Poppa Sam and Corra swinging.

During this time running was a really nice outlet for me to clear my head and feel normal when things felt uncertain.  The next thing I knew I was having some of the best workouts I have had in a very long time.  I began to dream of fast times and a PR at USATF 1/2 marathon championships on April 29th.  On April 21 Ryan and I ran a local 5k in support of on of our neighbors and local schools.  Things went really well and my feeling that my fitness was on was solidified.  I finished 18 seconds under my prior road PR and felt pretty strong doing it.  Ryan won and pulled me along to second.

Look at those smiles!

Eight days later I felt really excited about my chance at a PR even in less than ideal weather.  I knew I was ready to go.  I enjoyed some coffee with Anna Weber the day before and we encouraged each other to chase our goals fearlessly the following morning.  I went to bed knowing I was less than 1 hour 16 mins of hard work away from the PR I had been chasing for nearly eight years.

The gun went of, and Andie Cozzerelli and I came through the mile together in 5:41.  I felt comfortable and we went through the next 2 miles in a similar pace. Suddenly, my left achilles felt very weird.  I backed off a bit and tried to adjust thinking maybe I was running a bit too fast, and a small adjustment would go a long way.  I had no sign of anything wrong at all in training so I was really surprised when it happened.  Even more surprising was when the pain kept increasing.  I tried running 6:00 pace, I tried doing a hard stride, nothing was changing it.  For 3 miles I tried to fix whatever issue had popped up.  No luck.  I ran back to the hotel with Ali Morgan.



Turns out I had a nerve entrapment and after about 10 days off and some dry needling, I finally was feeling pain free and ready to run. I have started back slowly at 50 miles and have worked back up to 70 this week and some workouts.

This weekend marks 20 weeks to the Columbus Marathon and I have good base fitness and ample time to prepare this summer/fall.

Follow my blog to get weekly training and racing updates between now and the Columbus Marathon on Oct 15th!  I have a number of races coming up starting with Columbus 10k on June 4th and Garry Bjorklund 1/2 on June 17th!