Brushing Off the Cobwebs

Wow, I just noticed that I haven't posted since August, so I guess I can say I'm "brushing off cobwebs" in more ways than one. The other cobwebs I'm starting to brush off are getting back into racing again. Last year was a tough year for me. It started with a high note of running a PR at the Houston Marathon, but then quickly went downhill from there. I was diagnosed with a calcaneus stress fracture in the beginning of February which kept me from running through the end of March. Then, just as I was getting back into it, I ended up with an entrapped nerve in my calf in mid-July. After going through just about every treatment you can think of, and not seeing a whole lot of improvement, the doctor scheduled me for a nerve release surgery. Thankfully though, right before I was supposed to have the surgery, I started seeing a little bit of improvement and decided to push back the surgery to see if it would heal on its own. It did, i was able to avoid surgery, and started running again at the end of November.  So, all in all I was able to run for about 4 of the 12 months last year. Not fun! I learned a lot through the difficult experience, but it's something I would not want to go through again.

This weekend I race in my season opening race, the Red Hills Triathlon in Tallahassee, FL.  This was the third year I've done the race and as always, it was a fantastically run race. Last year when i did this race it was actually the first time I had run since being diagnosed with my stress fracture.


On race morning, we woke up to some pretty cold temperatures. The air temp was in the low 40's and the water temp was in the low 60's...brrr! I was definitely not looking forward to plunging into that water, but at least it ensured that the swim would be wetsuit legal. I was in the fifth wave with all the women 39 and under. When the gun went off we all took off, running through the knee deep water, then diving in once it got a little deeper (didn't take long). When my face hit that cold water it was shocking, so much so, I had a hard time catching my breath. I started to freak out a little bit, but after I took  few strokes on my back, I was able to get under control.

The only bad thing about wetsuit swims is trying to get out of them in T1. After a brief struggle, I peeled it off and headed out on the bike course. Once on the bike, it doesn't take long to figure out why the race is called Red HILLS. The course is only sixteen miles long, but you get your full money's worth, it is tough! It's a beautiful area and on mostly quiet roads, but the hills are no joke. It was still pretty chilly, so I was more than happy to get off the bike and start running.

Upon arriving in T2, I realized that I could feel my feet or hands much at all which made it a little difficult to get my helmet off and my running shoes on. After fumbling through transition, I was off on the last leg. The run course is 5k and split between running on pavement and trail. My legs felt pretty good, the only problem was I couldn't feel my feet. I felt like I was running on wooden blocks until about 2.5 miles into the run when I started getting feeling back.



It was fun to be out there again competing with everyone and dusting some of those cobwebs off. I have alot of work yet to do, but I'm looking forward to the upcoming (hopefully injury free) season. One thing I am continuing to learn is even if I don't feel like I'm in the shape I'd like to be in and I'm not necessarily competing at the level I would like to, just being out there working hard and enjoying the sport is enough.