One Bad Ass Runner

 It's been a while, I know, and lots has happened since last I wrote my RR from London. A month or two before London, I started having issues with my right foot dragging while running. No pain or any indication that anything was wrong. Just before Easter, I had a run outside with hubby when I noticed my toe was feeling weird and when I turned the shoe, the whole big toe area had scraped off! It wasn't happening all the time by then, but this was the turnaround point of the issue. While it was happening once in a blue moon, now it started happening on and off during the runs. I only had two long run weekends left for London (back to back LRs on both days, like 16/12 and 18/14) and I still ran them well but shortened the run/walking to 30/30 seconds to accommodate the issue. And as you read, I finished London so success on that. The week before we left for London, I started seeing a chiropractor and PT for the issue. Both and many friends kept telling me that it was the back and ...

 On April 21, I finished the London Marathon in a PW by more than an hour. I almost quit a gazillion times due to blisters on my feet that were so painful I had to power walk most of the race. That's the summarized story of this saga that started 10 years ago and that almost didn't happen. Long AF Version Training As you know, I've run quite a number of marathons (53 and counting) in the last 14 years, starting in 2010. My best marathons occurred in 2012-2013 and later in 2015. After 2015, my quest to finish 50 marathons took me on a ride of perfectionism and obsession, DNFs, and later triumph. Then the pandemic happened and for some reason, my drive, paces, endurance, etc. hit an all time low. I managed one marathon since late 2019 and that was in 2022. Perimenopause drove my endurance and will to run another marathon to the lowest level ever while also driving my weight to an all time high. I felt like even running a mile (or even run/walking it) was a huge task. After th...

I wasn't going to write an RR for this race as I was just running it for fun, but I think I can take some good things from this race enough to write them down. As you know, I had a good late Summer/early Fall races, with times I wasn't even expecting. So it was frustrating to get injured after a fall and to still be dealing with this issue 3 months in. But such is life. A few weeks ago, I ran the Donut 5K Holiday Run and it was not an easy race. I ended up walking it with some friends for a good chunk of the race and couldn't breathe well enough to run it. I've also been having issues with my right leg (the good leg) where I start scuffing the inner toe during my runs. I think I have changed my stride/gait somewhat to accommodate the injured leg. And it has been happening more and more often and during the race it got annoying. For a heel to mid-striker like that, that is weird. My retired shoes normally look pristine on the sole but lately all my shoes are already scuf...