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Spartan Relays

January 22, 2011 (Afternoon)

Exercise Type: Run

Weather: Inside Veale

Comments:
WU: 3 mi.
3k 9:25
CD: 5 mi.

As I put my spikes on and started doing strides, the cusp was directly on the spot where my foot pain was worst and there was just no way I would have been able to run like that, so I rushed into the bathroom and began to shove toilet paper into my shoe. I managed to move the part rubbing so that I could run without too much pain, but I cut my finger doing that and walked out of the bathroom bleeding. I was getting blood on my uniform and had no place to wipe it so I headed up to the medical staff to get a band-aid. All of this happened within five minutes of the start of the race when I was wondering if I actually had a career ending stress fracture and was sick.

When the race began, I went out toward the back of the pack conservatively and moved up to where I was right behind the rest of the Case runners in the race. After about 1200 or so I started drifting off by myself and got separated from the rest of my teammates lamenting in my head about how my legs didn’t have ‘it’. With two laps to go, Coach Lanese yelled to me that I looked too complacent, so I kicked and finished a little bit stronger, mentally surprised that I was done already.

My parents told me I looked like I was limping the last couple laps but no one else confirmed it. Coach Lanese told me I looked like I was physically “there” but looked more “happy to be running” than interested in the race. She was quite right of course as my goal was to not get hurt more than to run well. I did a five mile cooldown whining to myself about how my foot hurt and the litany of little things that went against me today. From a physical standpoint, I need my foot to heal, to get looser before the race, and to do more speedwork. But most of all, I need to want it.