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Dec 19/01 — Carlene: Counting blessings
The year 2001 has been a good year for me running and health-wise. I have raced a number of new distances and set new PRs at each distance -- sometimes by big margins. I have really "raced" and finished happy knowing that I ran smart and gave my all on the course. I got my first hardware and my body continued to reshape itself from the running and crosstraining.
(My new muscles are great!) It has been very fun and I keep reminding myself that I have been very fortunate.My race statistics are as follows:
DATE RACE DISTANCE TIME Jan 21 Richmond Road Race 10K 59:40 Mar 25 Around the Bay 30K 3:23:58 Jun 23 Smith Falls Duathlon 3K run, 20K bike, 5K run 1:27:24 Jul 1 Motionware Canada Day Road Race 10K 58:52 Jul 15 Graham Beasley Duathlon 10K run, 40K bike, 5K run 3:11:14 Oct 14 Home Depot Half Marathon 21.1K 2:10:10 Nov 4 Jim Howe Memorial Cross Country 5K 29:15 Nov 25 Help Santa Run 2M 14:25 Dec 8 Santa Shuffle 6K 34:20 I still have one more race left: a 5K on December 30th in my home town of London, Ontario. This will be my first race in London and it feels strange that I will be running there. When I lived in London I did not run and so I have no idea about the local running scene. I had been hoping for a 5K PR to add to the pile of PRs I had set this year but I am not sure that is wise or possible because on December 10th I hurt my knee.
After a year of being pretty healthy, hurting the knee with a simple twist while standing in my basement was a rude surprise. It reminded me of when I was sidelined in the spring with bronchitis and was unable to run my favorite spring half marathon. However, catching bronchitis didn't seem like my fault or like something avoidable.
Turning slightly and wrecking the knee... well... it hit me hard physically (I screamed in pain) and mentally. Due to the intensity of the pain I was certain that I had ripped my knee to shreds and would never run again. I was depressed and unsure what I would do. Part of me was scared of once again becoming the fat couch potato I used to be. I gained 2 pounds from sitting around for just one week and stepping on the scale each day terrified me. Luckily lots of ice, rest and ibuprofen later I am again walking normally and have begun the slow return to running.
I am still dreaming about the 5K PR but also dreaming about just running healthy and pain-free. Winter has arrived in the form of about 8 inches of snow and some freezing rain. The footing is challenging and scary to me. However, I have calories to burn and goals to achieve. My training may be timid at first but I still plan to get out there and do it.
Happy holidays folks! I will talk to you again in 2002.
Flipper hugs
Carlene-30-
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