I’m down, but I’m not defeated

10 weeks ago when I decided I needed to rest there was a fear in the back of my head that even with complete rest my injury would still be present. That fear became a reality when I tried running two weeks ago and the pain in my groin felt the same. I’ve had a couple broken bones in the past so I know the achy pain which dissipates when I start using that area again. The pain in my groin is still sharp.

The first five weeks I took off weren’t that bad, somewhat enjoyable. Taking some time off can be a good thing. During that time I was patient and embraced the idleness. However, not doing any activity for 5 weeks, 6 weeks, 7 weeks.. started to take it’s toll and I was anxious to be active again. I started doing some light mobility exercises, eating healthy and getting back some routine in my life. I was getting excited about training again because I thought I was nearing the end of the tunnel.

Part of me hoped that the pain I felt day-to-day was just scar tissue and with a little exercise it would clear up so I decided to do a little running after 8 weeks. My plan was not to exceed 10 minutes. I wish I would have had to hold myself back, instead I barely made it to one minute. I ended up jogging 4 x 1 minute with one minute walk in between, (I haven’t run since).

That really deflated my hopes of coming back. Not to sound overly dramatic but I think it’s natural to wonder if this is the end of the line. If I didn’t think I have the ability to run a PB in the marathon perhaps I would call it a career and focus on something else and shift my running away from high-end goals. At this point I, first and foremost, want to resume an active lifestyle.

After feeling sorry for myself I scheduled a doctor’s appointment and a subsequent MRI. Hopefully on Thursday I’ll get the MRI results and figure out what the next steps are. From this MRI they should be able to establish what isn’t healing and what needs to be fixed. Perhaps the bone chip was detached for so long that it smoothed over and time-off alone was never going to re-attach it? Maybe there is a surgery that can fix me?

The Commonwealth Games were great to watch. The men’s 10,000m was the highlight for me, watching Cam Levins go for gold down the homestretch was incredible. Watching 40 year old Jo Pavey get bronze in the women’s 5000m was inspirational, especially if you realize the setbacks she’s had over her career. Nick Wills’ kick in the 1500m was out of this world, bummer he wasn’t in better position with 200m to go. Watching Zane Robertson snag a medal in the 5000m was cool knowing his and his twin brother’s story, check out the film “Running Away From Nothing.” Kate Van Buskirk made a big step in the right direction by grabbing bronze in the 1500m.

Michael Shelly showed, once again, that he is a brilliant championship marathon runner by winning the gold medal in Glasgow (with a 2:11:15 PB). He finished second four years ago in Delhi and at the 2012 Olympics ran even splits of 67:05 to finish 16th overall.  He’s likely to run a big PB with the right race.

The men’s road cycling was a great race. It was absolutely pouring rain for most the 168km criterium course and the whole field dwindled down to just 12 finishers by the end (from over 140 starters!).  With about 11km to go Geraint Thomas dispatched Jack Bauer and Simon Thwaites with a decisive move. It was pretty clear that Thomas was going to win barring disaster as he held a 45 second lead with about 6km to go. Then disaster struck, he punctured his front tire and had to get a wheel change. The change didn’t look as though it was really quick and I thought the chasers were going to catch up, although they didn’t. His lead was cut down to 20 seconds and he managed to hold them off and win the gold.

I took my girlfriend to her first baseball game ever the other night. The Detroit Tigers scored in every inning they were at bat to win 11-5 over Colorado. I told her this was rare, although I didn’t realize just how rare it is. It’s the first time the Tigers have ever done it (unless they did it before 1912, record keeping wasn’t so good back then). It’s the first MLB game since 2006 to have such a feat. And it’s only been done 15 times, ever.