Saturday, July 11, 2009

A Slog Through the Streets of Long Beach

My right ankle survived the 12 mile run today. It was my longest run since last October’s half marathon when I tore my right posterior tibialis tendon. Considering that my ankle has been pretty sore the past few days after having done a road interval workout last Tuesday, I’m relieved that it didn’t seem to get any worst. But then I’m writing this while there are still some endorphins circulating in my body so the pain is not so intense yet. I anticipate that it will be more painful a couple of hours from now. I’ll have to reconsider doing those faster workouts because they cause so much pounding on the joints and it overstretches my ankle tendon when I push off on that foot. It feels good to push the pace sometimes though.

Even though we ran a conservative pace today, the run still felt difficult because it was a very hot day. During the water breaks, I’m usually itching to get going again. Not today, I was content on hanging around for at least a few more seconds at the water tables. Although it wasn’t a good thing to happen, my pacing partner tripped and fell so that gave us another reason to take a couple of short breaks. As a lucky coincidence, when she stopped at a bathroom to cleanse the wound on her knee, the city serviceperson who was cleaning there happened to have a first aid kit in her truck so at least my friend’s wound was cleansed and bandaged.

Many times today, I was looking for an excuse to pack it in, abort the run, and not finish the 12 miles. I just didn’t have the energy today. To compound matters, I started feeling a hot spot on the pinkie toe of my left foot. It felt like the beginnings of a blister.But I persisted because if my friend could finish the run with a scraped knee, I certainly could too without any broken skin. When she fell, fortunately the blood didn’t splash out, but there was quite a bit of blood coming out for a couple of minutes. If it did splash out, that would probably be the first case ever of sharing body fluids while on the run.

A slog it was, but it was a slog that we finished.

2 comments:

Nancy Deprez said...

Oh sorry to hear your running partner tripped and scraped her knee. I saw you guys stopping, but I didn't know it was a full-on fall. :( I hate falling! I can't believe she continued to do the peninsula with you after bleeding!

Good for both of you. Yes, it was hot!

Noel DLP said...

And she had a pre-existing scab on that knee from a previous fall already. I told her not to tell her husband that I pushed her to the ground because she was running too fast.

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