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Home > Michelle's Blog > Previous Postings > 01/26/07
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Previous Postings |
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January 26, 2007:
Twin Cities MarathonIn October, I ran the Twin Cities Marathon in memory of my mother - she died of cancer in March and was a HUGE influence on my life. She was the mother of 10 kids - all of us whom were four sport athletes and non-stop. I had about 40 family and friends all over the 26.2 mile course cheering me on, and about 50 at a brunch afterwards. They all had these shirts on with a picture of me and my mom from my first marathon 16 years ago. It was so great!! My dad drove up from Iowa to see this event and, even though he had a stroke 5 years ago, causing him some troubles getting around the course, he was at three different "Michelle" sitings - cheering so loudly and proudly...
Anyway, about three weeks before the marathon, a friend, Jody, and I were in Virginia Beach and I was in the long runs of my training. I went out the day after the big hurricane had come through there and ran about 8 miles on this really unstable path. I felt a slight twinge in my leg after that run, but of course, with the stubborness of an Iowan, ran 10 miles the next day, and then 16 miles the day after on this path on Virginia Beach itself. I noticed something had not felt quite right after that first day in my shin, but being the pig-headed person who pays no attention to pain, I kept on pushing. (notice pigheaded and Iowan - hmmmm?)
All the runs leading up to the marathon for the next three weeks would start out so painful - like I almost threw up and I haven't thrown up since high school. And then after about a half mile, it would be OK and I'd be off running 8, 10 or 16 miles - whatever I felt like. The pain would be there, but not as bad as the first half mile.
Ignore, Ignore and now we are the day before the race - all the family and friends are showing up and my sister Susan and brother Bob decide they want to calculate how many steps I'll be taking the next day (by the way, I've told no one about this pain except alittle in passing....). So I run across my kitchen so they can measure my stride to do their calcs, and after those 4 strides, I went into my laundry room and seriously almost threw up.
So now I get up the next morning, the day of the big race, and took 4 advil - had a friend Amy bring 4 more and give them to me at mile 10 and then my friend Paula another 4 at mile 20. Basically I was adviled up to 12 before 11 am. Again, after the first mile or so, I had a good time running, smile on my face - was actually ahead of my pace by quite a bit by mile 20, until I ran out of water in my body, had to walk and drink for about a half mile and then got a second wind and ended up with a 3 hour and 40 minute marathon. Not my best, but pretty good considering I ran the whole race with A BROKEN LEG.
Yep, that's right - I went about 10 days after the race, the body healed, but the leg kept hurting, so then I went and played football one night and my Dr. friend Carly asked me, "So I've been meaning to ask you - how's that leg you told me about a few weeks back?" I said, "Take a look." Here this lump had developed - calcium building up - she said, "Michelle, you have a broken leg." I was like, "Riiiiiiight." She said, "Michelle, I'm not kidding - go to the Dr." So the next day I did, and sure enough, they took XRays, said I had a nice, big break in my Tibia and casted me up - crutches and the whole deal - for four weeks, then four more of rehab.
That was a bummer cuz I missed the first four games of hockey, but I'm all better now and back on the warpath!! Everyone thinks I have this really high pain tolerance, but I think it's a really high STUPIDITY level. Here's a picture of me on that beautiful day in October....
The t-shirt logo that Michelle's fans wore.
