I’m jumping head first into this space in the middle of a story that has seen various iterations and attempts at being that just didn’t quite work. I can’t really say why, perhaps you just have to wait until you find the right space and the right time, and then you feel something unlock. Writing can be tricky and if you feel like you’ve created a space that doesn’t fit you, your tone, your style, it can be stifling. For all these reasons, I am here now to start this story again.
I’m writing this on Tuesday, May 3, 2016, four days before I’m planning to run the OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon in Indianapolis. I’m no stranger to racing in Indy, and I think you’d be hard pressed to find a better racing town or community. What I appreciate most about racing in Indy is that it is notably flatter than my training grounds, so if nothing else there’s always a mild sense of comfort at the starting line knowing that the steepest inclines are behind me (or below me if you’re look at a map).
Here’s all you need to know about my training to get up to speed: I was initially planning to run another race in mid-April, but pulled out because I was having some nagging issues with a foot. It started as some discomfort on the top, and in addressing that issue seemed to give me some ankle pain. Fortunately for me it has turned out to be the injury that isn’t, and according to much research and poking, I have loosely identified as “something wrong with my tendon”. I have been satisfied with my own diagnosis because the issue hasn’t gotten worse, and thanks to the plethora of information available on the internet I found the two things that jump-started the healing process: ice massage and unlacing the top eye of my shoe. I pulled back for a couple of weeks to make sure it wasn’t something more serious, then jumped back into training once I was clearly on the mend and had picked a new race date.
Sitting here now, I am absolutely thrilled to be running this particular race. I love the larger races, and it’s so much fun to get caught up in the excitement and camaraderie. This morning’s run was a dress rehearsal of sorts, a few tempo miles to reassure myself that I can, in fact, do this. It was also a little test run to make sure that my foot, without a doubt, would be able to comfortably race. I have given myself a green light.
Like all races, you never know what’s going to happen until you’re in the thick of it, but sitting here now I’m more excited than nervous, choosing to forget how long those final 3 miles of my last race felt. After all, there are donuts at the end. There are donuts at the end!
Time goal? I don’t know, I have a loose goal of beating my last time with the secret goal of blowing it out of the water, with an applied caution that says somewhere between beating it and blowing it out of the water is likely possible. And if not? I’m okay with that. Running for fun (and donuts).
*Photo credit: Jack Lyons
