Monday, April 16, 2012

Second thoughts

In my last post I wrote about a good, albeit slow, 3 mile run. Feeling positive from that pain free run, I went back to the track on Tuesday. Unfortunately this time I could feel a slight nagging in my foot. It wasn't painful enough that I couldn't run through it, but I cut the run short and went to the gym instead. I've been cross training like crazy to keep my fitness up so I can justify not altering my diet to match my non-running state.

I found a physical therapist who actually is a runner himself and has more experience working with runners so I have an appointment for tomorrow to get a second opinion. I probably should have sought out someone who specializes in running from the beginning, but it's a difference between a 3 min drive and a 20-ish min drive and it was just more convenient to see someone close to home. Anyway, I'm looking forward to hearing what the new physical therapist has to say, but I'm not expecting any kind of miracle cure.

I didn't mention it because I was a bit tired of talking about races, but I skipped a 5-miler last weekend. It was only $12 and I didn't feel like getting up early to make a 40 min drive just to walk so this time I barely debated my decision at all. In the last four years, this was my first DNS. And now that it's happened, I've realized that it's not that big a deal. I might feel differently if the registration had been $112 instead of $12, but still now that I have one DNS I'm starting to not care that much about DNS-ing other races as well.

Next weekend is the 5k that I convinced my boyfriend to sign up for. We were both looking forward to it and with my foot injury we would have actually been able to run it together, since I wouldn't be trying to race it. Then my boyfriend mentioned that there's a car rally the same day and that he wished he had checked the calendar earlier. I'm usually not that into most of his car stuff although I try to be supportive the same way he is of my running. But this rally actually sounds interesting even to me. From what I gather, it's almost like a scavenger hunt of sorts. There are teams of two, a driver and a navigator, and the objective is to follow the directions while keeping an eye out for clues along the way to help answer a set of questions. We both hesitated a bit because we're already registered for the 5k, but ultimately there'll be more opportunities for 5ks later in the year and this particular car rally is only once a year. At least our money is going toward a good cause... a foundation responsible for taking care of the families of fallen officers.

I even questioned myself about whether I should forgo my Disney trip. On the list of reasons to cancel:
  • All the walking around the park could be bad for my foot.
  • Even though the race registration and plane ticket are non-refundable (about $300 total), that's still less than I'll have to pay for hotel, park tickets, and food if I take the trip.
  • I don't know if I want to go when I can't give the race my full effort. 
  • I think I might have a case of Disney burnout. I've been so many times over the last few years that I'm starting to feel like I've seen everything, aside from the things like tours that cost extra.
However, on the other hand:
  • I need a vacation from work and it's just not the same sitting at home for six days versus actually getting on a plane and going somewhere.
  • While I'm not uber-excited about planning the trip (usually by now I know which park I'll go to on which day and have some dining reservations made), I'm kind of looking forward to a more relaxed trip where I'm not worried about trying to fit everything in.
  • I don't want to break my streak of attending every Expedition Everest Challenge so far.
Ultimately I'm not going to cancel the trip, but it says a lot about how my thinking has shifted that I would even consider it. I hope it's a sign of maturity and open-mindedness, and not a cue that races no longer serve as a motivational tool now that I'm willing to skip them.

1 comment:

  1. Go with your gut, although in the end you'll probably want to go just because it is a mini escape :D Even if you can't go full out, you can enjoy the race for what it still is at heart: a run! Take it all in and you'll have so much fun with no pressure. Ooo and take a lot of pictures!!! Treat this like a great race review and it'll be worth it.

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