1 week to go

Currently, I am one week out from the marathon that I have been diligently training for and getting injured from for the last 4 ish months. I spent the majority of the last week in France for work, with little time for running (and a lot of time for good eating!) so I took this as a much needed break (it's taper after all) from stressing about whether or not my foot was going to make it to May 6.

After my 21 hour travel day yesterday (with an unexpected 8 hour layover in Paris) I finally made it home around midnight last night and decided not to set an alarm for my hour run. The sun woke me up at 6 (thankfully not the cats!) and I decided I was rested enough and got ready to head to the treadmill. It would have been a nice day for an outdoor run, and had this pesky foot problem magically completely disappeared, I would have just done the 10k with the running group nearby, but I elected to keep it safe indoors.

I hadn't run for almost a week after my disastrous 2 hour turned 30 min run the previous weekend, and I hadn't exercised basically at all, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. I hopped on the treadmill at 6.0 mph and just took it easy. The first 9 min were totally fine, and then I started to notice a bit of pain. I stuck with my "keep it interesting" trend of increasing 0.1mph every 10 min, and the pain ebbed and flowed. Sometimes it got sharper, but then backed down. Around 44 min, it got excruciating, and I willed myself to just get to 45 and see if it got better. Somehow, it did (though my form must have looked awesome as I tried to avoid stepping on the painful part!) and I continued through the rest of the run, increasing by 0.1 mph every 5 min to end just under a 9 min mile, which at one point in time, was pretty much my goal pace. The pace changes didn't seem to affect the pain, and knowing I only had an hour scheduled for today helped me to mentally push through it. However, I am really not sure what to expect for Sunday- would I be able to push through for another few hours?

I got an x-ray right after the run in preparation for my doctor's appointment on Monday. I found a primary care/sports medicine doctor in my insurance plan nearby, so I am hoping he will give me good advice regarding a game plan. Again, if the race is in the cards, I will go out there and do my best. I have no idea what my pace can be since the last few weeks have been so sporadic with running. If we (dr, coach, me) decide running is a bad idea, then I will go spectate the heck out of the race for my running buddy, or if possible, run/walk the half instead. It's going to be tough mentally if I can't do this race with all of the anticipation and training that has gone into it, and I know that while I am trying to remain rational, I will probably be devastated if I can't run. But, all in all, I will know if that is what happens, I will get through it and push onward. I don't think this training will go to waste. I have learned to push myself to longer distances, and I have really enjoyed it. And, I am confident that I will complete a marathon- if not May 6, then another day!