Bandera Withdrawl

It's a sad day for me because this morning I had to admit my mortality and withdrawl from the Bandera 50K race. I've been struggling with feet and ankle pains for several weeks, and although I got lucky and slipped through Sunmart, it's obvious to me now that I need some time off. I had a few mediocre runs up north during my Christmas break, mostly focusing on big hills and a slow pace, but my feet hurt after only a few miles. I did have a wonderful (yet painful) run through some back roads in Lexington Kentucky that easily ends up in my top 5 favorite runs of all time. The course I did was out and back down an empty road, along a small creek, and dodging stray dogs. The "rolling hills" were more like mountains for this Texas runner, but the views were magnificent. My feet were killing me the whole way, but I enjoyed the run and the air and the views so much that I just kept going. I only knew to turn around when a hundred-pound St. Bernard told me that I should. When I got back to my car I was limping noticably, but it was exhilarating.

How did I find this great running road? My father-in-law is a new home builder in Lexington, and he is building a new house on a 2-acre lot in a new empty neighborhood. Lexington is filled with these places, it's great! Anyways, I spent the day "volunteering" my services, painting the house for him. After a 10-hour day of hard labor, as everyone else packed up and wobbled home, I strapped on my running shoes. Your should have seen their faces.

After this, I took a few more days off and this morning decided I would go for a run and make a final decision on my readiness for Bandera. 1 mile into a St. Ed's run I had a terrible pain in my right foot. I headed down a fairly steep decline, over-focusing on my foot, and ended up twisting my ankle pretty badly. I turned around, limped home, and sent an email to Joe (the Bandera race director) that I would be volunteering for Bandera. This was the only way I knew to force myself not to run in the race. I had already paid the 50 bucks for race entry, and knew I'd show up ready to run otherwise.

I'm frustrated that the healing process has taken so long, yet grateful because I'm now realizing what a blessing it was that I was able to run Sunmart despite this nagging injury. That was my real goal this season, and I'm lucky and grateful that I was able to finish it. I spoke breifly in a previous post that running (and suffering) could teach humility. I knew it was true, yet wondered how I could explain it. It has now become clear to me. Running great distances brings the human body to great pains, and sometimes pushes it's capabilities. Many endurance runners start out thinking that they can "beat" this, that they can reach any limit. I'm not trying to take the romance out of this, I still believe the human body can acheive great things, but these things take preparation and training. There are limits, and recognizing that is very humbling. One might think that accomplishing huge goals like a marathon, 50-miler, or 100-miler would inflate the ego, but I have found it does quite the opposite. It make me recognize my limits, understand my abilities (and push to new limits), and appreciate the blessings I have with my good health and supportive family and friends. I could not acheive my goals without each of these, and during an injury like right now, I realize that any of this could be taken away from me at any moment. It is this reason that I have to get out there and take advantage of every moment, because every second counts.