Posts Tagged by ramblings

Thank you all for your wonderful, thoughtful comments on my last post. Missing Boston (again!) this year was tough. Yes, I know the temperature was sweltering and not conducive to a PR. And yes, I saw so many runners in complete misery on Monday. Every marathon is a battle, but Monday’s race seemed to be more of one than usual. However, that didn’t change the fact that when it comes to Marathon Monday, no matter what the conditions are, I’d rather be running.

Still don’t fully grasp how hot is was? This elite pack of women ran with a parasol in an attempt to find a tiny bit of relief from the unrelenting sun.

I kid…

If you ran on Monday – whether you finished or not – congratulations. I ran the last 6 miles with Corey and even that little bit was brutal. I saw so many runners (Corey included) digging deep and leaving all that they had out on that course. I have the utmost respect for anyone that {safely} took on Boston in those conditions. And if you didn’t run due to heat or injury – I respect you all as well. I know the whole deferment policy has gotten a lot of flack from runners across the country, but I think we all need a little reality check. First of all, deferment from Boston isn’t exactly a new thing. In the past, people have been able to defer due to injury. It was only a couple of years ago that Boston stopped allowing deferments due (I expect) to the increased popularity of the race (please correct me if I’m wrong about this). And while I wish that they would allow people to defer because of an injury instead of just instituting a last-minute policy because of the weather, the BAA did what they had to do in the circumstances. Will it make it harder for people to get in next year? Maybe a little (though maybe not, since the number of eligible runners isn’t that high). But the safety of the runners who had already qualified and gotten into the Boston Marathon is much more important than your chances of signing up for the race next year. Sorry.

I know this subject has already been beaten to death, so I will get off my high-horse now. I did not defer from the race, but it wasn’t due to any principles. I simply wasn’t able to get myself to the Boston Expo to pick up my number. At first I was stressed out and disappointed by this (but I paid so much for that stupid shirt!!) but in the end, I realized I needed to truly embrace the spirit of my last post, and move on.

Figuratively and literally.

So this past weekend, instead of getting ready to run Boston, I was a little busy with other things…

Things like packing up all my belongings and moving 3 hours north.

And trying to turn this mess…

…into a livable, functioning kitchen.

That’s right, EC and I have finally made the big move – out of Rhode Island and into the country. Moving to Vermont had been one of those “someday” dreams of ours. We imagined coming up here in 5 years or so, when life was a little more settled and our directions in it seemed a little more clear. But it’s funny how things happen. When we least expected it, everything suddenly came together in a way that allowed us to take a huge leap. A leap that required giving up many of the conveniences we had gotten used to from living in the city (like convenient grocery stores and 5 minute commutes to work), but that has already made me so happy.

My life is still in transition. I’m not living up here full time yet because I’m still working in Rhode Island. This is obviously not an ideal situation, but my job ends in a couple months. I think I can make it work for a little while. Plus, every time I walk outside at our new house and see the mountains all around me makes it all worth it.

I still haven’t been able to run much, but I feel like I am slowly on the road to recovery. Which, to be honest, can’t come soon enough. I have miles of trails and dirt roads to explore.

Well hello there. It’s been awhile. Almost an entire month of silence. And while a lot has happened, in some ways it seems as though everything has remained the same. Since there’s no real great way to jump into blogging after an extended absence (besides providing you with a list of everything I’ve been doing for the past several weeks – which no one wants to read and I certainly don’t want to write), I now present to you a brief recap in terms of the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The Good

Somewhere during the time I stepped away from Health on the Run, this little blog of mine turned 2! I can’t believe I’ve been writing this site for two whole years already. You’d think I’d know what I’m doing by this point. …or at least have a book deal.

I just got back from a trip to the beach where we celebrated my Mom and the youngest {ontherun} sister’s birthdays. To celebrate the occasion, we baked the most beautiful cake, via a recipe found on Pinterest.

Nailed it!

And you wonder why I’m not a food blogger…

During the time while I was away, my poor fiance packed up my entire apartment and moved out all of my crap valuable possessions on his own. I’m not sure many other people would have been okay with doing that while their significant other lies on a beach. So I think we can safely say that he wins fiance of the year.

More importantly, I am no longer a Rhode Island resident!

If you’ve never lived in RI, you may not understand the significance of this break-away. But for such a tiny state, it has an incredible power of drawing people in and never allowing them to leave. I came to Providence for grad school back in 2007, determined that this would only be a 2 year living situation. 5 years and a couple of jobs later, I’ve finally gotten out. Little Rhodey has a lot of charm and I loved my time living there, but I am ready for some new and exciting changes.

I am now living under the same roof as EC for the very first time in our long history together. I should probably mention that we are also sharing a residence with his parents and younger brother. Not exactly the way I had originally pictured our first go at cohabitation. However – I am incredibly grateful to my future in-laws for their willingness to take myself and my crazy pup in for a little while.

Which brings me to my next, most exciting thing! We found a house! (Not to buy, but who’s counting.) And we love it. It’s in a new state, and will be a HUGE change from our normal lifestyle. But we’re both so incredibly excited about it. More details on this to come soon.

The Bad

Not everything that has happened has been exciting. Unfortunately, the stress and sense of being overwhelmed that I thought would magically disappear once April rolled around has not. (Surprise!) In fact, it’s still here, just as intense as ever.

That being said, I’ve recently just accepted that this level of stress is going to be standard in my life for the next couple of months. I had some awful days/weeks where I acted like a big baby about it all, but no more. From this point forward, I’m resolving to focus on the good, exciting things instead of wallowing in the crap (friends – hold me to this!).

However – that doesn’t mean I’m not incredibly sad to report that recently, running has become pretty much nonexistent in my life. Remember how I was struggling with an arch/ankle injury? Well, due to some pretty stupid training decisions on my part, that little ache is now the least of my problems. I recently developed intense knee pain that has kept me from running for almost 3 weeks now.

Which brings me to….

The Ugly

I may not be running the Boston Marathon.

I can’t even tell you how much it pains me to type that. …and how many emotional breakdowns I’ve had up until this point.

After living in denial about the state of my injury for awhile, I finally got myself into a sports medicine clinic on Tuesday, and the results were not awful…but not terribly encouraging either. After a brief examination and x-ray, he told me what I already knew – I have Patellofemoral Syndrome, aka Runner’s Knee. And at this point, it’s too late to do any sort of physical therapy to get me ready for Boston.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that I can’t run. I am now armed with a heavy dosage of anti-inflammatory drugs and specific instructions to ice, focus on stretching my quads and IT band, and run “when I feel up to it” (whatever that means). Last night, after the first day on my new wonder drugs, I went out for 22 minutes of (almost) pain-free running. It was pure bliss.

But 22 minutes of (almost) pain-free running doesn’t exactly make me marathon ready. I’ll talk more about my injury and what I think led to it in a future post, but for now I’ll just say that the first few days after injuring it, I couldn’t do anything. Even walking or sitting with my knees bent caused major pain. It has gradually gotten better to the point where I could do the elliptical in the gym without hurting it (which apparently, according to the doctor, is bad for my knee. Oops), but over the past 3 weeks, the amount of cardio exercise I’ve done has been minimal.

So, even if by some miracle the pain dissipates enough over the next week so that I can run for longer than 22 minutes without it hurting, there is a much bigger question: At this point, can I even MAKE it to 26.2 miles?

I honestly don’t know. I’m going to give it a few more days before I make up my mind, but either way, it won’t be pretty.

—

For someone who just wrote that she’s resolving to focus on the positive from here on out, I realize that I’m not doing such a great job with this post. But what can I say? I’m a work in progress.

More to come soon! At the very least, I’m happy to be back blogging.