Posts Tagged ‘Injuries’
So I read up on my black toenail [the link has a gross photo; mine is rather beautiful in comparison IMHO] — the one and only injury I received from the Disney Half Marathon — and found that unless it is still painful, there really isn’t anything I need to do with it. It will most likely fall off in a few weeks, with a thin, pale replacement nail already in place underneath. In fact, it should be back to looking normal [whatever normal is for toenails] within 3 months. I hope.
It looks pretty Goth at this point and truthfully, I kind of like it.
Maybe a few dabs of black nail polish to my other toes would make it a little less noticeable. Any suggestions for bedazzling it?
Initially, I thought my shoes were at fault. They were in a way, but in actuality, it was due to the puddle I ran through that got my foot completely wet. The cold caused my feet to shrink up and even though I had really great socks on, my foot began to slip when I ran downhill. The cold also caused me to [thankfully, I think] not feel it as my toe jammed into the toebox of my shoe. It doesn’t hurt at all now, so I’m just waiting to find a lone black toenail hanging out in my sock one day when I change shoes after work. Would it be completely disgusting or strange if I kept it as a memento?
The title is my finish time for the 2010 Disney Half Marathon! For those of you who didn’t keep up with the weather this past weekend, the half marathon was run on Saturday. We had freezing temps, SNOW, sleet and freezing rain for the entire race. Being in “G” corral really sucked. I really didn’t have an option of moving up to a faster corral because this was the first time I’d ever run a half marathon. I had to run a lot slower than I had planned; not only because of the weather but also because I spent most of the time bobbing and weaving through the crowd.
It was a fantastic experience, though. I have to admit, while waiting in the dark and cold for the race to start, with sleet pelting off the garbage bag I was wearing, I really began to wonder what the hell I’d gotten myself into. 
The SO and 4 friends were there to cheer me on. I saw them right after the start and then again right on the corner as we turned toward Cinderella’s Castle near the halfway point. They were out there in that frigid, wet cold, yelling and screaming and holding signs that read, “RUN, CHARI, RUN!”. It made me tear up. They were waiting for me again at the finish. I actually began to cry after I elatedly jumped over the finish.
I removed my garbage bag at around mile 4 and then removed my throw-away hoodie just before I entered Cinderella’s Castle at around 6 miles. I was toasty warm and figured I didn’t need it any more. WRONG! It cooled down quickly, plus the temps kept going down because the sun wasn’t up yet.
In trying to get a pic of the castle behind me, I ended up with the above not-so-flattering photo. Oh well, it gets the point across — I was almost over halfway! My Garmin lost the satellites while running through the castle; it picked them right back up once I exited, though. My time on the Garmin was about 3 minutes faster, but I think it did a great job and it was great to have it as a resource during the run — and it’s apparently waterproof, at least to the point it was exposed to rain, sleet and snow. The iFitness belt I wore protected my cell phone perfectly. In fact, my cell was probably the only thing that didn’t get wet!
I slowed down at every aid station and made sure I drank some water even if I wasn’t thirsty. I was not going to have dehydration become an issue! I tried some Powerade along the way, but it made my stomach cramp horribly. Blech. My Clif shot bloks worked great, as did the Clif gels they gave out at around 8.7 miles.
One thing I have to pimp: my Zensa calf compression sleeves! They were awesome. My calves didn’t hurt and didn’t get cold at all. In fact, my calves stayed fresh the entire 13.1 miles. After the race, only my thighs, knees and feet were having issues. They were cramping up mostly because of the absolutely FREEZING weather. Having huge sleet smacking us as we came through the chute didn’t help much, either. We had stayed at the All-Star Movie Resort, but the lines for the buses were ridiculous. Having never done a half marathon or any race in weather like this, I didn’t think to have something warm and dry to put afterward. My lips were blue and I was shaking uncontrollably. I had the Disney space blankets they handed out and one of my friends put a rain poncho on me, but it just wasn’t cutting it. Thank goodness 2 of our friends had driven out that morning — they shoved me in their heated car and everyone began to pile sweatshirts, hats and even long johns on top of me. Everyone piled in and sandwiched me in and they kept me warm to the hotel.
At the hotel, the SO turned on a nice, hot shower and I SAT in it and stuck my legs straight up into the air to get the lactic acid out of them. The hot water felt great as it hit the bottoms of my feet. No ice bath for me, thank you very much; I’d already had one.
I wore the compression sleeves again all day yesterday on my calves. They are absolute miracles. My calves and shins feel wonderful. I had to ice my knees last night, but today only my thighs are a bit sore. I’m really happy with my physical condition. The only casualty may be one of my toe nails. My second toes are longer than my big toes and after accidentally running through a deep puddle [I said the "F" word when that happened], my feet were wet. On the downhills, my feet were apparently sliding and jamming into the toe of my shoes. I couldn’t feel it at the time; it was too cold, but later after we’d gotten home and I cleaned up, I could see that the nail on my left second toe was dark purple and it was pretty sore to the touch. So far, it’s still hanging in there so maybe it’s a keeper!
It was a fantastic experience and one I’ll always remember. Thanks to everyone involved and thanks so much to the SO and my friends — you all are the best and I love you!
If you participated in the Disney Marathon Weekend races, which one[s] did you do and what were your times?
[edited to add my medal!]
Almost forgot! Here’s my finishers’ medal!
OH! And my stats [via my Garmin]:
Distance Time Total Time Pace
1 Mi 12:57.63 12:57.63 12:58
2 Mi 12:56.83 25:54.46 12:57
3 Mi 12:50.29 38:44.75 12:51
4 Mi 13:05.92 51:50.67 13:06
5 Mi 13:09.01 1:04:59.68 13:10
6 Mi 13:57.9 1:18:57.58 13:58
7 Mi 13:32.71 1:32:30.29 13:33
8 Mi 15:34.08 1:48:04.37 15:35
9 Mi 13:06.93 2:01:11.30 13:07
10 Mi 15:48.52 2:16:59.82 15:49
11 Mi 13:11.21 2:30:11.03 13:12
12 Mi 17:01.08 2:47:12.11 17:02
13 Mi 13:15.1 3:00:27.21 13:16
0.19 Mi 1:52.88 3:02:20.09 9:55
In thinking about how the Disney half marathon in January starts at around 5:50am, I realized that my running sunglasses would be too dark to wear until the sun comes up. That got me thinking about what I’m going to do — I wear prescription glasses, so my sunglasses have an Rx insert in them. If I don’t wear my sunglasses, then I’m stuck wearing my regular glasses, which are heavier and of course, once the sun comes up, I’ll be without protection from the glare of the sun. Trust me, I’ve been worrying about this for a while.
My sunglasses, the adidas Gazelle S, feature something called the Quick Change Lens System. This means I’m able to quickly change lenses for different situations. My sunglasses came with no documentation of this feature, and searching the tubez didn’t result in anything either. I found a site that is an authorized adidas sunglass retailer and ordered a pair of clear replacement lenses. Then, I called adidas’ eyewear support folks and they were able to walk me through removing my existing lenses and putting them back in. It entails me getting schmutz all over my lenses, because I have to grab them and pull them out, but they clean up easy enough. [I do think the sunglasses and even the replacement lenses should include documentation/instructions on how the Quick Change Lens System works.]
The replacement lenses come in their own little microfiber pouch, which can also be used to clean the lenses. I think they’re small enough to store in a pocket so I can start out the half marathon with the clear lenses in and then switch to the LST Silver lenses once it’s light enough to do so. It’ll take a bit of time off my run, but with regard to the big picture, I think it’s worth it. I just hope I don’t have too bad a case of sweaty fingers when I’m changing them out.
Good news! My big toe problem from the other morning went away on its own. I was able to do my run that evening and didn’t have any pain at all; I’d almost completely forgotten about how badly it had hurt that morning. I guess I just slept wrong on it, which is odd because I’m a very light sleeper usually, especially as I’ve gotten older.
This morning when I woke up, I realized my right big toe was aching. The joint nearest the foot, at the base of my metacarpal bone. I don’t recall doing anything at all to it yesterday, so I can’t figure out why it’s so painful. It hurts when I step on it or move it — especially if I pull the toe to the left, away from the other toes. I think I slept on it funny and maybe had it jammed into the area at the bottom of the bed where the sheets are tucked in. It seems to be feeling a little better as the morning goes on. Today is supposed to be a training day and I had planned to run that 4 mile run that keeps getting away from me for one reason or another. At this point, I’m just trying to not become pissed off.
Breakfast was a little different this morning. Instead of my usual Stonyfield YoBaby yogurt, I tried the Stonyfield Oikos organic Greek yogurt. This one was non-fat with honey on the bottom. It tasted pretty good on its own, but it’s much thicker than the YoBaby and once I glopped it on my cereal with strawberries and a banana, I’m not so sure I like it. Oh well, chalk one up to experience.
I’m going to keep an eye on my toe today. I’ll keep carefully walking on it; I don’t want to end up tweaking my knee or hip because of babying the foot. Since it happened so quickly overnight, I doubt it’s anything serious. With the way it felt this morning, I’m sure that if I had done something to injure it, I would have remembered when it happened. Maybe putting it up will help. It doesn’t hurt unless I put a good amount of pressure on it, so it’s not throbbing and it’s definitely not obviously swollen or inflamed. I’m going to keep my plan to go out on the trail and run today; hopefully I’ll be able to do it.
A mystery to be solved — I always pick things apart like this until I can figure out to my satisfaction what the problem was.
Our weather here this week is gorgeous. Central Florida has had a ridiculous number of 90+ degree days this past summer, right up to the end of October. Yesterday, the high didn’t even reach 76. There was a bit of a strong wind at times from the north and it was mostly cloudy all day, which is probably what kept the temps down for us.
I got out for my run after work around 4:30pm. Most of my run goes west to east and then I loop back east to west. There is a portion about 1/8 of a mile that is initially north to south and on the way back, that meant I was running head-on into that wind. It wasn’t cold at all and it still had a bit of humidity in it, so it wasn’t uncomfortable. Funny thing is, since I practice ChiRunning, having to run into the wind actually helped my form quite a bit. I’m supposed to lean forward a bit, so with the wind blowing into me, it assisted really well with my lean.
I got a really good rhythm going between my breathing and my arms and legs and for a moment, it almost felt like I was floating. I hadn’t felt like that since way back in high school; I had problems sleeping at night in my senior year from pent-up energy or something. I’d get up in the middle of the night, change into my shorts, a shirt and my tennis shoes and I’d sneak out of the house and go running. It was cool, slightly damp and the moon would light the way. I’d leave my glasses at home [I can't see anything clearly at all without them] and I’d pretend I was flying. It was peaceful. It was also probably a pretty stupid thing to do, but we lived on an Air Force base in Japan at the time, so it was relatively safe. But anyway… yesterday, I got to almost feeling that same way as I would back then, running at night without my glasses.
When I finished my run and did my stretches, I noticed the pain I’ve been experiencing [at the point where my left leg meets my groin] in my left leg was almost non-existent. Woo! I think I’ve been concentrating too hard lately on my form and forgetting to enjoy the run and to just let my natural rhythm take over. This was causing a tendon or something near my groin to either over-stretch or over-tighten; I’m not too sure which. But striving to relax while running and then actually accomplishing that is truly a break-through, and it appears it’s helping with the injury as well.
I received a new pair of adidas Response baggy shorts today. Because I do NOT like tight clothing, I don’t order the women’s version. I have no idea why it’s assumed that women like tighter, shorter shorts, but that always ends up being the result — even when they’re labeled as “baggy”. I have one pair of women’s Response baggy shorts and very rarely wear them because they’re really not baggy; at least not what I’d define as baggy. So I now order the men’s shorts. My first two pair I ordered were the 9″ and the 5″ in large. Don’t ask me why I ordered large; it looks as though I’m wearing my older brother’s shorts and could fit him in there with me [and I don't even have an older brother]. So the ones that arrived today are the 9″ as well, but in medium. We’ll see how they fit and if I’ll end up needing the small. Baby steps, folks — at least I’m wearing running shorts with built-in panties; Mom would be proud.
