Uh-oh.......here we go again?

First off, thanks for all the great comments regarding my weekend long-run on the Boston Marathon course.  I'm glad you all enjoyed reading about it......it was so hard to try to capture how much fun I had and how difficult it was, but I did the best I could.

That said, I now find myself back on the disabled list.........while my cold has for the most part cleared up, my right ankle is now hurting.  After finishing the run on Saturday, I was sore, but it wasn't anything or anywhere specific, but rather an overall fatigue and general soreness.  I took ibuprofen and got a great night's sleep and woke up Sunday morning with a sore right ankle.....centered between the outside ankle and that big tendon directly opposite from the achilles tendon (ok, so I really don't know much about anatomy, so maybe one of you will let me know what that tendon is called?).  I had no plan to run on Sunday, but I did go to the gym and walked on the treadmill for 20 minutes and did 30 minutes on the stationary bike....figured some active rest would help with the recovery process.  I came ho me, dug out the old icepack and strapped it on.

A little backstory on my right ankle.........6 years ago, I stepped in a nasty little (and previously unseen!) hole in my front lawn on my way to the car and SEVERELY sprained my right ankle.  While the x-rays didn't show a break, I should've insisted on an MRI which might have pointed out some tendon/ligament damage, but the hospital I went to didn't do it.  At the time, I was WELL in excess of 300 pounds and decidedly NOT a runner.  Needless to say, the ankle took a long time to heal, and I always wondered if there was still something not quite right with it.

So now it's Monday....and I have to go back to work, which means I'm going to be on my feet for at least 6-7 hours before I can get some ice on it.  I found my old ankle wrap, strapped it on, and headed off to school, hopeful that the compression would help.  Monday was scheduled as a rest day, so running wasn't even an option, which was a good thing, as the ankle was still a little tender.  More ice, more ibuprofen, and more sleep left me hopeful.  Strapped up, headed off to work and hoped for the best.  When I came home, it was time to lace 'em up and see what it was going to be.

And it wasn't good.........I was hopeful that I could go out for an easy 5, but almost right away, the ankle was complaining.  I was going easy and just enjoying being out on another one of our crazy 70 degree days, and while I definitely could have made the distance, I knew that I would actually end up aggravating things more and potentially causing bigger problems down the road, so I shut it down and walked the final 3/4 of a mile home.  I was dejected, scared, nervous, frightened, and sad..........not feeling good about anything..........because I've been here before.

When I was training through the summer for the 2009 Bay State Marathon, I barely knew what I was doing.  I ran all of my training runs too fast, and ended up tweaking my left achilles tendon with more than a month to go before the race, forcing me to taper WAY too early, and I ended up running the marathon injured.  I vowed at the time that if I ever ran another marathon, I'd try to do everything I could to avoid injuring myself again.

So here I am......pouring my frustrations and insecurities into my blog.....with American Idol on the TV to cause me to cringe every time one of the talentless contestants overreaches with their song choices and consistently end up under the proper pitch again and again............getting ready to put the ice back on, then pop some more ibuprofen and then head off to bed, hopeful for some magic to happen overnight.  I'm not sure if I'm even going to try running tomorrow, or I might put it off until Friday to give it all another day........with my sole focus being getting to the starting line in Hopkinton on April 16th in one piece, I hate the feeling that I can't trust my body.  There are times when I feel a kinship with thoroughbred race horses.  Those huge, powerful and magnificent animals can be betrayed by the tiniest bones in their legs........and I'm a big, sturdy, powerful man who can't trust his lower legs.

I'm going to just have to take things day to day and not try to push it at all.........and for someone who enjoys the training almost as much as the race, taking it easy is just not in my nature. 

Hope to see you all out there on the road.......SOON!