An Understandable Fail

I had a big weekend of running planned. I was going to run the 10M CRIM on Saturday and follow it up with a slow 22M run on Sunday. But first I should back up to last Tuesday to help establish some context for my weekend fail.

Last Tuesday I took a short 2M run/jog wearing my Vibrams. I’ve owned and used my Vibrams for almost a year now, but I’ve never run farther than 3M wearing them. The reasoning for this is twofold: first; I have the original (read: cheapest version) where there are no straps or material to secure the shoe (is it a shoe?) to the foot (see picture below);

and second, my foot slides in them. I’ve purchased the toe-finger socks to try minimize this, but it all results in the occasional blister on the direct bottom of my heel. And yes, they are the correct size, the foot just naturally slides in any shoe you run in.

When I ran in my Vibrams last Tuesday I nonetheless still got a tiny (dime sized) blister on the bottom of my right heel. No big deal, I’ll just take it easy and it will go away naturally, as they always do.

But during my tempo run I managed to aggravate that blister, and during the last mile of my tempo run I felt the bottom of my heel “squish” a bit. When I got home I noticed the blister had grown to the size of a silver dollar. Ugh…not so good. But it had a few days to recover before the CRIM. No problem.

On the morning of the CRIM the Redhead began inquiring as to my desired pace. I was figuring something conservative—around 75 minutes. Because of her injury, she was going to be the official Spike Cheer Team Captain and photographer.

So, facing 60deg temperatures and a forecast of a cloudless day, I lined up just after the 7min pace sign and slammed an 8oz bottle of water. When there are over 10,000 runners, even if you line up by the 7min pace sign, you are going to have to spend a lot of time playing the human version of Pushy Penguins. I hit the first mile at a 7:08 and felt pretty comfortable. I didn’t look at my watch again until after mile three, where I saw a 6:59 split. Humm I thought, if I keep this up, I could hit something close to 70. But I knew I had the Bradley Hills to deal with, and the temperature was quickly rising to 65+.

When I hit the hills I felt I was moving through several of the runners even though my pace was slowing slightly. Up up up, down, up up up up, down down, up up up up, down, up up up and up. Finally, I reached the top of the hills and the end of mile 6. I decided to focus and try to run 7min miles for the last four. The only problem is that the blister on the bottom of my right heel was getting more and more insistent that it was extremely displeased with its current situation.

Somewhere around the start of mile 8 the blister felt like it exploded, and I felt like I was running on a soaked sponge. To say that this is a painful experience is to understate the experience greatly.

At mile 9 I decided to drop the hammer and ran a 6:24 mile. Because I was so focused, I missed the Redhead cheering for me, but she did manage to snap a picture of my final approach. Despite my goal, I managed to sneak in under 70 min. After the race I hobbled over to join the Redhead and double back to cheer on other runners—including my cousin.

When I finally took of my shoe to look at the damage…well, I’ll just let you see.

Home, and after a shower, the blister had to be addressed. So the Redhead donned her nurse outfit and played running nurse, cutting away the excess skin. It was hands down the most disgusting thing she has had to deal with since the beginning of our cohabitation (three months today!). The blister was so thick that it was like cutting leather. The result is…well…below…

Needless to say, such a mere flesh wound made my attempt at 22M less than 24 hours later idiotic. So, I bailed. And I’ll consider giving it another go tonight. Unfortunately, I’ll have to adjust my long runs accordingly because this could take a few days to heal.

Puntastic.

One Foot In Front of the Other

The Chicago Marathon kicked me in the shin (or, more accurately, stomped and then popped my ankle joint capsule) and never looked back. But I have looked back, and I feel awfully dissatisfied. So a spring marathon is the only way to turn a bad race into a valuable learning experience.

Training began two weeks ago, and the running continues despite ridiculously stupid cold temperatures. Yesterday was the Super Bowl 5K and I’ll provide a race report tomorrow, because today’s I’m going to focus on my 11 miler Saturday.

Very much wanting a good run because I would be running for time, I was less than thrilled to see snow descending all day Friday. And it wasn’t a heavy snowfall, just the kind that lightly blankets cleared sidewalks and causes all kinds of slush—translating into a slow run due to poor traction. That left two undesirable options. First, an 11 mile treadmill run. Oh, painful. Or, running laps at my gym (only five laps per mile). I chose the 55 lap option. To help keep my sanity, and keep count of which mile I was on, I alternated my music on and off, with the exception of the last mile (which I kept the music on).

Reviewing my splits, I can tell when I was listening to music. Also, my goal for this run was to average between 8:00/M and 8:30/M. My splits went like this: 7:25, 7:19, 7:41, 7:36, 7:41, 7:40, 7:54, 7:36, 7:41, 7:32, 7:06. Well, so much for sticking to my goal pace.

Overall I felt great, and I was very surprised to see my splits. However, runs like this usually come at some cost…and my cost was one bloody toe on my left foot and one huge and crazy painful blister on my right (I’ll post pictures later because I know you want to see them).