Runner Crazy

Mike and I ran a 5K this morning and finished in 27:10.  Which averages us at a few seconds over a 9 minute mile, woot!  I ran it harder than I would have liked, but I think I did that because I knew it was only 3 miles.  That's the pace that I wanted to do my half at, but I also know I couldn't keep the pace I ran this morning up for 13.1 miles.  The day after my half I hurt.  Which I fully expected considering how much I had hurt right after the race.  But I realized when I woke up in the morning that I must block the hurting part out, because other wise I wouldn't keep doing these things!  And, another part of it is that I get the runner crazy now.

My sister ran her 2nd marathon on a slight stress fracture.  She went to a doctor who told her she couldn't do any more damage by running her marathon, and as long as she took 6 weeks off after the race she would be fine.  So she decided to run it anyway.  I thought she was nuts and asked her not to run.  But she ran it, took the time off to heal after, and completed 4 more after that. (That's 6 total. Yeah, 6.) 

I decided I'm going to do a marathon. (whether I do one fall '11 or spring '12 is still up in the air for the moment).  But I am going to do one, and before I'm 30.  I've been discussing my running schedule a bit with dr soc, and while he doesn't want me to do a marathon, he knows I'm going to do it anyway and will be my support staff day of.  I told him about Amy's stress fracture and her running anyway, which freaked him out, and he turned to me and said: "promise me you won't do that."

And I couldn't answer him.  Because I know now.  If the doctor told me I wouldn't do any more damage and said I was good to go, you bet your ass I would run.  I self diagnosed my shin splits and I still ran my 2 halves last year.  Shin splits are not a stress fracture so not even the same thing.  But I taped my legs, popped some pills and ran through the discomfort, because not running something I had been training for didn't even cross my mind.

The runner crazy is not something everyone gets.  But once you do...good luck ever getting rid of it!