Fellow ChiaDead Brian Gaines (a.k.a "Leadfoot") completed the Fox Cities Marathon on September 23 by race walking the entire distance! He finished the course in an average mile time of 13:22 finishing in 5:49:56. Not an easy "feet" to walk so fast for so long. (puns are just a riot aren't they?)
With no foot pain resulting from this race we are all confident that at Brian's next check up with the podiatrist he will get the okay to get back to RUNNING marathons.
Way to go Brian!
Not sure if he will post a race report to his blog but if you want to check out his blog its at http://briangaines.blogspot.com/.
3 comments:
This in encouraging since I'm an injured runner who plans on walking the Chicago Marathon (like a dummy!) Speaking of injuries, you and I are the same age and I was wondering if you've noticed that you're more injury-prone than you were in early years. I've been lucky to not have a single injury until this age-related disk herniation and I'm somewhat in denial! I'm wondering if my distance-running days are over?
Vendelascity,
I hear your pain! I am definitely experiencing more injuries as I age but nothing that would spell the end of my running. I have adjusted my training over the last few years to make more time for recovery of hard workouts and races and I've started cross training more to take care of particular weaknesses. I've come to accept that I can't brute force train like I did when I was training for the trials. It's all about running for a lifetime so I'm doing what I can to make that so which means taking time off when needed and adjusting goals.
These last series of injuries are definitely a pain in the ass but they are healing....just a little slower than I would like! :-)
I'm not sure what disk herniation entails. Get the best medical advice you can get, and get it from a doctor experienced with athletes or its just a waste of time.
Good luck at Chicago.
Thanks for your response, Janeth. I'm fortunate to be under the care of some great PTs at Northwestern's Rehabilitation Institute. They've assured me that disk herniations such as mine eventually resolve, although there is no guarantee. In the meantime, I need to be diligent in doing my back stretches and stability exercises (all of which I've been doing religiously for 2 months with varying degrees of success from day-to-day.) I used to be able to run 2-3 days in a row. No more. Like you, going forward, I'll need to make adjustments in my training by not running 2 days in a row and substituting cross-training to keep up my strength and endurance. I must admit that an hour on the elliptical is like death for me, so it's difficult to psych myself up for it! I wish I'd known then what I know now about core strength and stability, and the value of cross-training when I was in my 20's. If I had, perhaps I'd still be competitive like you are. I'm impressed by your track record (no pun intended) and you're certainly an inspiration!
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