It has been 4 weeks since I have run. I was/still am training for my first ultra marathon, The Foothills 50K Frenzy. (50K is 31.5 miles) The race is on October 5th and I'm pretty excited about it. I love my running community. Here in Boise we have a group on Facebook called the Boise Trail Runners. I also belong to a group called Mindful Runners (which is open to anyone, but usually its just a consistent group of women that run at my pace or a little..sometimes alot...faster than me). But the point is, ALL of these people are amazing. Trail running is the one place that I have found that it really doesn't matter what your back ground or story is, if you are a runner, you are "cool by me". I love these people! We know what we run for..to be the Superhero Version of Ourselves... and nothing else matters. We are all in this together and we will all support each other to reach our goals!
So today, after 4 weeks off (due to knee pain and vacation) it was time to get back on the trails. When I stopped running, I was up to 17 miles on the trails, but there is no way I could do that just getting back. My running friends scheduled a 20 mile run through the trails and after much debating, I finally agreed to join them for the run, but I would only do 6 miles (an out and back). A SMART person would say, "I'll get back to running. I will start with the small 6 mile run on an easy trail." But then there is ME. Nope. I stuck to the 6 mile rule, but it was on the toughest climb of the Foothills Frenzy! 3 miles of climbing with no breaks (then back down).
Okay, so our weather did NOT look like the picture above. However, we did have our own special, delightful weather issues. When we started it was at the tail end of a lightning storm. No big deal. We have run through a thunder/lightening/rain storm on these same trails before. However, it was in early spring and the grass was green and it was RAINING. Today, in late summer, the grass is dry, wildfires abound and it was lightning (with no rain) and windy. NOT the best combination. It was pitch black when we started, which would have made it easy to see if a glow of a wild fire if it started (so that was good, right?) Then there was the wind that was blowing from the east (where all the wildfires are). It didn't take long for all of that smoke to get stuck in the mountains where we were running. I mentioned that we were going up hill for 3 miles. So we were huffing and puffing and needed all the oxygen we could get to keep our legs moving forward up hill. With each breath we took, we inhaled the smoke. It was lovely.
One of my running buddies was already feeling sick to her stomach before we even started running and she hasn't been sleeping well. I hadn't slept well or gotten enough rest in the last 2 days and the 4:15 AM alarm pretty much sucked. But there are NO EXCUSES when training for your races. Inevitably, on a race day, you are gonna have nights when you don't sleep well the night before or when your tummy is just plain miserable. You don't quit on those days. You don't say, "Well, I'll just do this tomorrow." You get up and you run, because that is what you do...that is what makes you feel more alive than anything else you could do. So this morning was no different. Feeling tired, feeling icky, inhaling smoke and getting nauseated and headachy just wasn't an excuse to stop. It may slow us down, but it didn't stop us. We kept moving forward one foot at a time. As my friend would say, "This is good practice for a race day when we don't feel well." True enough.
Finally, we reached the top of our climb and it was time to run down. This is my favorite part of trail running. Getting up the steep climbs suck and is incredibly painful (especially after 4 weeks of nothing) but letting go on the downhill fills my heart with such joy! So I happily took the lead and just let my legs do what they love to do. I was booking it down hill. I got way ahead of my friends and stopped to make sure everyone was okay. I even stopped to take a picture of myself in the early morning smoke filled mountains.
Then I took off again. I was having entirely too much fun when all of a sudden, my left ankle (its always my left side) rolled and made a beautiful snapping sound. It was all I could do to stop the momentum of a body in motion that likes to stay in motion (especially whiles its booking it down hill) with one good foot and without falling and rolling down the hill. My friend found me bent over in pain as she caught up to me. "No, I am not puking. I just rolled my ankle." (I would have much rather been dizzy or puking!) Once we had all 3 of us together again, they agreed to walk with me to make sure I was okay. My spirit sunk. It loves to run down hill. My legs were begging to be set free. But I had to tell them to be patient and let the ankle recover. It's not like I had a choice. I couldn't just sit there and say, "Call ski patrol to get me down." The only way down was getting my own self down. So, we walked, and rather slowly at that. Moving a freshly rolled ankle keeps it from seizing up, and all I could do was hold to my truth that my body is perfectly healthy and it knows how to heal itself. Eventually, my ankle felt well enough to run again. So we took off on a slower more controlled run. Then it was time for my friends (who were doing 20 miles) to take off on the rest of their run, while I finished my (out and back). Alone, I ran back to my car. Each step told me that my ankle had been rolled, but it also told me that it would be okay. I told myself to just keep running and enjoy the morning. And that is what I did.
To be healthy and to be able to run is a privilege, and one I do not take lightly. I have friends in wheel chairs that would give anything to be able to get up and walk or run through the mountains. And recently, a husband of one of my friends was serving our country while hitting an IED. He is in a hospital recovering. He was an avid runner and has lost both of his legs. Ever since the IED incident, when I run, I run with him in my heart. And today as I ran and even as I rolled my ankle and thought about NOT running, I kept on running because I knew my friend can't at the moment. Though I know that if there is a way for the doctors to help him run again, his spirit will keeping fighting until he can. But today is a very special day. Today is his purple heart ceremony!
So this morning, as I sit on my couch, with my ice on my ankle, not only am I grateful for the privilege of running, but I am VERY VERY grateful for this man (A true Superhero) and his family for their sacrifice to our country so that I may have the freedom to run in the foothills!
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