Shortly before Arizona and Cowtown #5 I had a problem with pain in my ankle. About a year before I was at work, and had a heavy gate from a postcon (used to transport mail) fall and clip me on the outside part of my ankle. It just clipped the ball or protrusion that sticks out from either side. It hurt like hell for a few minutes, kind of like hitting the funny bone in your elbow. I walked it off, and didn't think much more about it. Afterwards, whenever I would go running, I would experience a slight discomfort there, not a Pain, just a slight sensation like a bruise feeling. I put it off thinking it would eventually go away. When you are training, you always have something achy. Well it never went away, and just before going to do Arizona, I was again at work, and step wrong and slightly rolled that ankle and felt a "Pop". This time it really hurt. It was about 2 weeks before Arizona, and I went to y sports medicine Dr to have it checked out. Dr Vargo was on maternity leave and I saw Dr Chris instead. He said it was probably a strain, and wanted me to wear a boot for 4 weeks and thought it would improve after that. I didn't want t6o miss the run in Arizona since I had already paid for it and had made my arraignments, and I especially didn't want to miss the last Cowtown and mess up my 5 year plan to get the Finisher's star. So I did both runs and then went into the boot. Afterward I was to go easy and only run 1 minute and walk a minute for a total of 20. That went ok for the first week, but when I went to 2min run and 1 min walk the next week, the problem flared up again. I went to a foot Dr and he informed me I had a ruptured tendon, which required surgery. The tendon was intact on both ends but was split down the middle and would never heal on its own. So, I had the surgery at the end of May and was out of commission for 7 weeks, 3 of those in a cast. I had signed up to do Nebraska and Colorado in June, but had to back out of those. I was able to get to switch to the next year on them, as well as the same deal on Rivercities in Shreveport. So I already have The Buffalo Stmped3e in Nebraska and Estes Park in Colorado for next year.
Which brings me to Ohio and Oregon both in September. I signed up for the Air Force half marathon in Dayton Ohio early in 2013 because Me and Andrea Kessel had collaborated on doing some states together. Her and her husband have decided to embark on the 50 states half marathon odyssey as well. We had agreed to do the runs in Colorado and Nebraska and the one in Ohio. BAF, which is my running group, had a number of members going to do Air Force. I had wanted to do the Flying Pig In Cincinnati as my race for Ohio, but got talked into Air Force instead. No regrets, though I may still go back for Flying Pig at some time in the future.
This was a 2 week trip that went exceptionally well. The only down side of it , was that Richelle was not able to go with me. I had originally signed up for the Trifecta triathlon in Graham again and was doing the 2 half marathons the following weeks. 3 races 3 weekends. I did a sprint on Labor Day, and knew that the 3 straight weekends thing was not a good idea. I was thinking that Trifecta was going to be the one I dropped, when I found out my sister was getting a surprise 50th birthday party in Biloxi the same night as the Triathlon. That sealed it we went to Mississippi and missed trifecta. Again a good decision. The surgically altered part of my ankle had recovered nicely, but after being laid up for 7 weeks, I was still having swelling issues in the foot in General. This was normal I was told and I would have a while before I was completely back to 100%
State 31 Ohio
I started off the trip by meeting up with my friend Tony, from when I was in the Navy. Tony lives just south of Indianapolis, which is where I already had plans to fly to before driving to Dayton. It worked out perfect, I met Tony and his wife and stayed Thursday night with them and then proceeded to Ohio Friday for the race on Saturday.Air Force was a Great Race. My friend Luis, who had been in the Air Force and was stationed at Wright-Patterson Base where the race was held, had been saying Great things about it for several years. He had been encouraging us to come and experience it, and I'm glad I finally did. It was a medium sized race which was run mostly through the base. We did venture outside of the base for a mile or so but returned back to the Start/Finish line which was in front of the Air Force Museum. It started out raining, and a little cool. There were not many spectators, mostly because of the weather. I was not up to running shape and knew I would be mostly walking. I had my Garmon with me but as soon as I started, it began blinking "Low Power", so I turned it off and enjoyed the walk through the Base. It was a little hilly, and I did run some, but mostly just wanted to get in the 13 miles and still be able to repeat it the next weekend in Oregon. I really enjoyed the finish line, where we looped the tarmac next tot he Museum, and got to run under and around a variety of planes. Pretty cool. The medal they gave us was one of the most impressive I have received. It ranks in the top 3 or 4 of the 32 finisher medals I presently have
State 32 Oregon
I stayed Sunday and Monday in Ohio and flew into Portland Oregon on Tuesday, for the inaugural Oregon Half marathon, in Banks Oregon. Interestingly enough, they plan to move the site of the race each year to a new venue. I had found another buddy from the Navy living just outside Portland and was invited to stay with him and his family. I had a Great visit with them. I ate a lot of Dungeness crabs, and saw a of of Oregon's breath taking landscape.
This was going to a Trail run and the Half was going to be mostly downhill. The full marathon went up the far side and came back down. Being all down hill, I was anticipating a better time than AF. When I arrived on Tuesday, the weekend forecast was for exceptional sunny and wonderful weather for the race. But that soon changed. The exceptional weather was on Wednesday and Thursday, with the rain moving in late Friday and Monsoon season during the run. Race day morning was heavy rain, gusting wind and 51 degrees. The race was a big one to start with, and the weather caused quite a few to stay inside that morning. I started to run, but the swelling in my foot quickly caused me to change that thought. Not sure if it was the weather, or just that I had done the race 6 days before but the foot wasn't having any of it and I ended up walking the whole thing. I think the scenery would have been spectacular if we could have seen it, but the rain clouds prevented that. It was a good race, just a miserable day. The after party would have been a good one, but at that point, I was cold and tired and soaking wet. All I wanted to do was get dry and find a place where it wasn't raining and escape the wind.
About a week after the race, they announced that because of all the no shows, they were offering a make up Typhoonathoner. For 10 dollars, you could register, and receive a tech shirt, bib, and finisher's medal, mailed to you. you were then on your honor to run the required distance, send a picture taken after the run, and you would be include3d as a finisher of the 2013 Oregon Marathon, no asterisk or nothing. You didn't even have to be registered for the original run, it was open to anyone. Not sure how I feel about that, after all the ones on Saturday the 28th were those who braved the elements, we were the Crazy ones. We deserve recognition.
