On Sat, Oct 12 I drove to Chattanooga to meet one of my best friends for a ‘girl day’ of a nice lunch and strolling and shopping. We hit 2 parts of town, parking once and walking.
Day 285: walking, 1hr (was about 4hrs in Chatt, but logging one ‘purposeful’ hour)

Day 287: RACE! Georgia Mystery Mountain Marathon

I’m being lazy and copying what I wrote on my other site (that I complained about yesterday). If you’re coming from there…skip over this.

I knew it was highly technical, steep climbs, etc. It’s called “Mystery Mountain Marathon”. I bought some new shoes on Sat as I didn’t think my Minimus would be a good idea for the various types of rocky terrain, and I have Upchuck coming up. Anyway, the shoes were great (Inov8)! My feet felt great. However, I think I’m not used to the higher treads (still a more minimal shoe). I fell twice in the first 2.5mi Hit aid station at mile 3. Feeling ok…mile 4 on a downhill, I hit some rocks wrong and completely tumbled over, with my ankle rolling. It was bad.

Fast forward to me shoo-ing off some guys who offered to try to help me limp along to the aid station, leaned against a tree for several minutes as I could put no weight on it. Thankfully they said going back 1 mile to quit at the mile 3 aid station was a bad idea (since it was a big climb back up)…because hey, it might not be broken and if it’s not, then I’d be pissed if I quit….

So, I limped along until I got to the mile 7-8ish aid station, where I was going to decide if I was going to quit. But, I made it! So, since I made it I decided that my ankle was already F*CKED to hell, and I was finishing this damn state, especially if my year is over (bye, bye Upchuck, bye bye CC100 or another 50m).

I laugh now because I know to most people it’s ridiculous logic (or not logic at all), but I will probably tell people, “if you’re debating for hours if you should go to the ER after the race, the middle of the night when it’s not crowded, or Urgent Care tomorrow…” then maybe you shouldn’t be running. Yes, I’d probably tell people that. But apparently I won’t follow my own advice! I may or may not have decided that “I will not tell Kurt, or anyone what happened. I’ll finish, then go to the Dr, as it won’t change anything now. I have to get off the mountain and drive home anyway.”

Today: my ankle is feeling much better! I now know it’s not broken. Tons of ice (on the 6hr drive home), elevated it on the dashboard, slept with it elevated the last 2 nights. I have a little more ROM this morning, but it’s still stiff. Not as tender to walk on. And no, I don’t follow the “if it was broken you couldn’t walk on it” rule, because when I broke the same ankle in 2008, I walked on it for 2-3 days and went to work, before going to the ER and finding out it was broken.

Day 288: Recovery day. I took it easy in the morning as I didn’t get much sleep. I then drove into town to retrieve my computer from the Apple store repair shop (everything is ok, whew!). I parked on the opposite side of the mall, in the last row of parking spots so I could have the farthest walk to the store as possible. When I got home I did a slow stroll up and down the street as well. So, I more than covered my ’20 min purposeful walk’ requirement.

Day 289: Walked before class. Ankle doesn’t hurt with every step! Just sore and stiff.

Day 290: Raining. Kettlebells and pushups and pullups. Various weights & bodyweight stuff.