I made it.  I made it to the NIKE women’s marathon and I made it THROUGH the NIKE women’s marathon, well half-marathon.  This race is very near and dear to my heart because it was my first FULL MARATHON way back in 2005, wahoo!  I loved ALL of it,  I always wanted to come back to race it again!!! Many of my BIG dreams started there!  Maybe I COULD qualify for Boston? Maybe I COULD race and Ironman?!

This year’s race was supposed to be very exciting and fun.  I was planning to race at NWM (that’s what I’m calling it because I’m tired of writing it ok?)….back to the story….I was planning to race the full marathon this year.  I got really excited because…

1. I was going to get to race this race again, plain and simple.

2. This was going to be my first SOLO-marathon (marathon without an IM attached) since 2006!

3. Including my two IM races this would be a marathon distance run every year for the past 5 years!

Now, don’t those three things sounds exciting?!?!?!?  I was JAZZED! Then I found out I had a racing buddy doing it too.  Life couldn’t get better.  Well, a couple hundred-ish miles of running later, we all know the story of my stinkin’ plantar fascia and it’s plans to ruin my life.

After battling with The Fascia (I’m calling it that), I almost immediately wrote the full marathon off, but for a LONG time still planned to race the 1/2.  I mean, c’mon when “The Fascia” started acting up, I was already running 13 mile long-runs. Piece of cake right?  Well…Lefty over there (I’m talking about my left foot) didn’t agree.  Race day was fast approaching and I wasn’t running AT ALL.  Like ZERO miles for the past month and a half. gasp!  I was, however, water running, elipticaling, and cycling up a storm (more stories on those things to come), oh and not P90Xing (more on that too….I know I know…where are the HOT-Katy pictures? I don’t want to talk about it).

Suddenly it was race week, and I started panicking.  I REALLY wanted my TIFFANY’s necklace….and they always have great race shirts….but could I trust myself to NOT RUN…to save my foot?  Could  I walk a half-marathon…..how long does that take anyways?  It sounded REALLY boring. Almost torturous….to go to a RUNNING race and WALK and watch everyone else LOVING being able to RUN. UGH!   What had I done to deserve this!?

I went over every possible plan with Brett, about how I would/could walk this race.  Really, I didn’t think I’d be able to run the whole thing AND I thought it would be better for my foot to walk it.   So I talked about alternating running and walking  a mile at a time, then running three, walking one, etc, etc.   Literally, I think my wonderful Brett sat through me saying each and every possible scenario of how to run walk 13 miles (thank you!).

Race morning, my plan was to run three miles then see how I felt and then jog/walk the rest of the way.  Well,  I LOVE RUNNING!!!!!  So…when I got to mile three, I kinda decided that I should probably run to mile 6 since that was where the hills were.  Then at mile six, I decided to just run THAT hill….then the next one was so small that…..then I before I knew it I was at mile TEN….so I just kinda finished the race without walking.  I did stop and take LOTs o’ Pictures.  My foot feels the same (if not better) which is weird, but I’m totally ok with it.

My pictures from the weekend don’t really “go with” the actual blog so I’m just posting them here at the bottom.

Just Us Girls La Femme Sportive

Sporting our new gear!

Beautiful views looking back at the Embarcadero from the top of mile 6ish.

These signs were so fun to read on the hills!

Looking down on the finish line from mile 9.

Celebrating with Kristen and Cheree

Kristen ran the full marathon and Cheree ran the 1/2

(but only because she ran a full last weekend!)

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so as you know i hurt my toe.  after that healed it was all marathon training, all the time.  NIKE women’s marathon was going to be my “big race” of 2009 and keep me on track to do one marathon a year for the past four years.  after a few weeks of struggling through my 7-8 mile long-runs, i really started to feel “it” coming back.  ”it” being that LOVE for running i have.  that grinning from ear to ear for the whole hour and a half that i’m pounding the pavement. that feeling that i wish my long run were longer….that i could stay out running all day….that i was a professional ultra marathon runner…….eeeerrchk (the sound of screeching brakes, in case you couldn’t tell).

so, about the time that “it” (see above) was coming back, my little left foot (yep, same foot as the toe injury) started hurting.  i started icing, stretching, everything-ing your supposed to do-ing when your foot hurts. i kept running though, hoping the other preventative measures would fix my little problem.  they didn’t.  after running on my sore foot for a couple weeks,  i decided to take a (dreaded) week off.  my dr. decided i had plantar fasciitis, and sent me to Physical Therapy (yay).

it’s been a couple weeks now, my foot still hurts.  i’ve decided to do only the half marathon at NIKE women’s marathon.  this makes me sad, but ultimately i need to be healthy for IM Coeur d’ Alene next summer.  marathon training through plantar fasciitis is not going to make me healthy.  half marathon training probably will not make me healthy either, (my PT keeps reminding me of this) but i’m doing it.  i ran three miles this week, it hurt.  my night splint should be coming this week so maybe that will fix me….

here are a couple pictures from my “week off of running road trip to seattle”

sunset view from our last night camping

love birds loving seattle

Zona loving the car.

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