Remember yesterday when I announced that I was going to be doing 52 half marathons in 52 weeks? Well, I already knew then that I was hurt.
See, way back over a week ago when I was running the Rose Bowl half in Pasadena, a large rock came out of nowhere on the trail (trails are the worst!), and I twisted my ankle in a weird way.
It hurt, and I hobbled along for a bit. But then all these people were passing me, so I had to start jogging again… This was in mile 3. So, I had about 10 more miles to go on my poor foot.
Obviously I kept going, because, you know… I was in the middle of a half marathon. What else was I supposed to do? I walked really very slowly for some miles in the middle. I’m sure I could’ve beaten up my ankle plenty worse if I’d been going for speed…but I still beat it up a little.
As soon as I got the chance after my finish, my shoe came off. And I was in pain.
Over the next week I tried to stay off it…ish. I mean, I like being active. I tried to push through pain thinking it was just silly, people trip on rocks all the time, and obviously if I made it through the whole rest of the race I had to be fine, right?
I iced it and such at times over the week, yet it seemed to not be getting much better. I still ran that Disneyland 5k, ‘cause hey, it was at Disneyland, and I had already paid $105, and it was only 3 miles, and I wanted that sub 40 minute 5k! So, plenty of reasons, right?
I ignored the pain. I tried my best to pretend I wasn’t in any. In my first half mile I was feeling it, but I thought I should just push through.
And, like a doofus, I went back and walked around Disney the following day, since I felt, “I have a ticket to the park only good this weekend. I better go!”
Sunday morning I could hardly walk. I tried rest, ice, compression, elevation, and just chilling out at home. That night I decided to go to the ER (at Good Samaritan hospital where they took good care of me) to see for sure what was going on. I didn’t want to do any serious damage (which apparently I was oh concerned with running around Disney before this).
The doctor ran some tests and was all, “yeah…so, funny story. You have a sprain. Why again did you do that 5k?”
I was best-ies with the staff there. Everybody was so very nice. (I had actually worked on a TV show in the same season as the EMT, and we’d never met all season long. Isn’t that crazy?) They gave me some crutches and instructions. They said, “most importantly, stay off it.”
I of course told the doctor I had a schedule, and I had a half marathon I had to do on Sunday. He said to see how I’m feeling that day. Now, the good news is, my race this weekend has a time limit of 6 hours(!).
My race next weekend has NO time limit. So, if I have to do these races partially on crutches, that’s what I’ll do.
I was a wee bit hesitant to announce my 52 in 52 challenge on a day I knew I was hurt. Then I thought, “Well, I’ve already told myself I’m going to do it. Whether or not I tell the world, I’m locked in. No matter what happens this year, I will find a way to get through it.”
As I said, I knew that even if there was something wrong with my ankle, I could always do the race on crutches. It’s only 13.1 miles after all! So, it’s happening. I’ll heal. Let’s do this.