GPx Eve

Chad:

Tomorrow morning is the Shamrock 4 Miler, the first race in the Run For Your Life Grand Prix Series.  Danielle and I are supposed to be fit, fired up and ready to go.  We are just over 4 weeks out from the Boston Marathon, we should be in some of the best shape of our lives.  But, it seems there is an injury epidemic going around and we have gotten caught up in it.  I take a bit of flak (and deservedly so) about always being banged up, but always pulling it together just in time to race well.  I guess I have been pretty lucky in that that regard.  Danielle, on the other hand, has a whole different injury profile.  She is very rarely hurt, but when she is it has been something chronic and debilitating.

The current diagnosis on Danielle is tarsal tunnel syndrome, which is a very painful nerve injury in her right foot.  Unfortunately, fixing/healing her foot is completely incompatible with marathon training.  I have been extremely impressed by her willingness to tolerate a great deal of pain in order to complete many of her long runs.  But she has not been running the miles or consistently enough to have any chance of breaking her 2:59:43 PR even though the Boston course is much easier than the Thunder Road course.  I have been trying to convince her to relax and enjoy the Boston experience without worrying about her time, after all she hit her Boston/lifetime goal of breaking three hours at Thunder Road, and won the marathon to boot.  But it is hard to convince a competitor not to compete. Especially in the most famous foot race in the world. 

We both know that injuries come with the territory, but it is an especially frustrating time to be at less than your best with Boston looming and the GPx Series starting tomorrow.  However, the frustration with running has been tempered by the adventure of trying to pick up triathlon and the privilege of racing as part of the One2Tri racing team. 

Last year a string of injuries sent me into the pool.  Since I lacked the patience to aqua-jog, I taught myself to swim; which was a hard push toward triathlon.  More injuries have confirmed that triathlon is my future.  Of course, it wasn't long before I dragged Danielle with me.  We bought our first bikes last year, and although we have not ridden much we now try to swim, bike, and run each week.  It is amazing how running injuries motivate you to bike and swim. 

I did my first triathlon last fall, (Cane Creek, 1st place AG woot!) but I am even more excited about Danielle's first tri (Cool Breeze Sprint) next week!  I OWN her in the pool, but I think she dogs it on the bike to allow me to keep up.  Not to mention the fact that even at 85% she is still faster than me relative to our respective genders, a fact she commonly forgets.  So, if she can deal with the pain in her foot and stay calm for the 250 yard pool swim, I expect her fist triathlon will be a success and more than that a great time!

Thanks for reading this far, hopefully this his and hers blog is the most embarrassing thing I do this year.  We will be back with a race update sometime soon.  C.