the 10k that should have been and a sprained ankle

In August, my friend Arlene invited me to run a 10k race with her on November 9. I had plenty of time to train, and I wanted to challenge myself. I have run 5ks, and I am really a believer that anyone can do a 5k with some effort and training. Anyone can run a 10k, too, but there is more commitment involved. I was ready for the commitment, and I figured I could find the time for hour long runs and whatnot. I had a good app on my phone to help me pace myself, and so the end of August, I began with training three days a week with Nov. 9 as the ultimate goal.

It was about 10 weeks of training, lots of minutes, and many miles. I number of those miles I have run on an unpaved dirt canal near my house. It's a quiet, less trafficked route where I don't have to worry about cars. By Nov. 5, Arlene and I knew we were ready. We covered just about 6.2 miles that morning in about 1 hour and 13 minutes, but 12 of those minutes were walking, so we figured we should be able to complete our run somewhere between 1:05 and 1:10. We were so excited.

We decided that for our last training run on Nov. 7, we would just do a quick 5k on the canal. No big deal. Just run it. We were running in the early morning before it was light (I need to be back before Enoch goes to work). We didn't have lights or headlamps, but we've run that thing so many times, who cares, right? Wrong. About a mile and a quarter from my house, my right foot hit a rut in the hardened dirt, my ankle turned, I felt a snap in my ankle, and I totally biffed it on the ground, scraping up my left leg as well. Immediately, I think I knew my race was done for. It was not good. I managed to get up, put weight on it, and hobble around to get my wits about me again. My sweet friend Arlene was very supportive and suggested we walk back. I was grateful I could walk and walk pretty normally, but it was hurting. I knew there would be plenty of ice and ibuprofen in my future.

I made it home, got some ice, took some meds, and put up the foot. It swelled for sure. I started crying, not so much because of pain, but because of disappointment. I had worked so hard for this, and I just really knew it probably would not happen.

Friday it was feeling somewhat better, but was quite swollen, and how on earth could I do six miles on it? Maybe I could do one. By Saturday afternoon after getting some opinions from friends, I realized I could really do some horrible damage to it if I ran, so I opted out. See for yourself.

Arlene went and finished in 1:09--shaving 6 minutes off her last best time. She rocked it, and I am so proud of her! I know there will be other races, and that all my training has been good for my health and psyche, but it still was disappointing. It was for a good cause, too--Shun the Sun--which constructs shade structures for playgrounds and educates people about skin cancer. Hopefully next year!