Part-Aaay!

You know what's good for a little pre-race distraction?  A *PaRtY!*  So that's what I did tonight.  Partied 'til the cows came home.  Had you seen us, or heard us rather, at the dinner table you'd have thought there wasn't a sober one among us.  My cousin dialed in to the party and E told him we'd invite him next year.  She's such a riot.  We *Laughed* and *Giggled* and *Reminisced* and *Laughed* *Laughed* *Laughed.*  It took a whole group to blow out the one candle on E's birthday cake.  As her late spouse said on his death bed, as E reminded us tonight, "We had a good time."  These are the days I live for.

 
Happy Birthday E!

Two days to go.....!

Do You Believe?

Yes, I Do Believe in Santa Clause.  But CAN you Believe that Secret City is Just *3* *Days* Away?!  Ohhh meee goodness.  I thought it would Never get here!  And now I feel like I'm not ready for it :(  It's like Christmas Eve when you don't have all your shopping done.  It's near, Very near, and I need more time. 

As my brother says, "What do you do when it's Fourth and Long?  You drop back and punt the hell out of it."  I'm punting.  I hope it lands inside the one-yard line!  I found my "Tennessee Running Chicks" t-shirt tonight.  They're bright yellow shirts that the girls that I'm running with and I wore at the 200-mile relay race we did in Indiana.  It made me smile.  I've packed it in my suitcase just as a reminder of why I'm doing this, along with the Nike 26.2 necklace around my neck. 

Even though I physically feel pretty bad about this race, I'm pretty excited.  I get to meet pseudo-sister's precious little girl for the first time!  I'm going to challenge myself once more and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine, or the rain, whichever the good Lord decides to grace us with.

We're almost to Secret City!  I start my journey tomorrow, stopping at the farm tomorrow night and then on to Knoxville Friday night and to Oak Ridge on Saturday for Secret City on Sunday!  Ahhhh!  It's soooo close!  Here's a nervous "WaaaHoooo!!" for you!  Or as my father said today, "Wooo."  WaaHooo Wooo!

Broken Peroneus

Five days to go and my feet still hurt to walk :)  I will get through it!  Office-Landlord Doug came over today because he heard about my feet woes.  He looked at my feet and said.... "you'rrrre not gonna be able to run Sunday."  I scoffed and told him to "GeT OuTtA Here!"  O.K., not really, but I did scoff.  Told him I was GoNNA get my t-shirt! 

Office-Landlord says, "You realize that the bruising means there is blood from damaged capillaries floating around in there?" He then explained to me that right below a lot of my bruising is the Peroneus joint/ligament (?) that runs along side the bottom of my foot and up around my ankle to my mid-calf.  ....EXaCtly, where I hurt so bad.  So at least I have an unqualified self-diagnosis!  My Peroneus is injured!  Knowledge is power.  ...I have no idea what I will do with this knowledge other than run around telling people that my Peroneus is broken.  It's gonna be So Fun! 

Don't Stop... Belieeev'n!

I find it frustrating and repulsive that I'm barely walking a week before Secret City.  BUT, I refuse to stop *Belieeev'n!*  My legs from my toes to mid-calf feel like they are on FIIRE.  This weekend, I had the luxury of icing my feet 2-3 times a day.  Today, not so much.  Couldn't this morning - had to rush off to work.  Though I did stop to consider wrapping my ice packs around my feet on my long drive to work.  But I realized that if I did that, I wouldn't have cold ice packs to use tonight.  So I deferred my ice packs until tonight. 

I don't have a freezer at the office, so no ice during the day either.  My feet of fire were sooo glad to finally hit the couch this evening.  I haven't been able to ice or rest my feet as much as I would like (though I totally had my legs sprawled out on top of my desk today the few minutes I was sitting down). 

Today, I wore my necklace from the one full-marathon I ran in college.  Instead of medals, the finishers got a Tiffany's silver necklace that says "The Nike 26.2 FINISHER."  They had little men dressed in coat tails passing them out at the finish line off of silver platters.  True story.  I put it on to remind myself that sometimes the seemingly unachievable is absolutely achievable.  I plan to wear it all week as a reminder. 

And on to the next day.....

Ain't All Bad

Ice Ice Baby is the theme of the week.  I am Not giving up!  This week will be a lot of ice, rest and a *little* exercise here and there - maybe a little ride on the bike at the gym.  My original training schedule had me doing 6 miles this past weekend.  That.didn't.happen.  It also had me doing two 4-mile runs this week.  That's not gonna happen either.  When life throws you curves, you adjust.  You don't quit.  Albeit, any hope of performing really well at Secret City is out the window.  However, I do plan on performing.  It just might not be so purrrty.

Today, my evening went like this:

That's three ice packs, two bag of pees and one glass of wine.  See, it ain't all bad!

Ohhhh Bumfuzzle!

NurseMother says I have "stress sprains."  Today, my left foot also turned that yellow.going.to.bruise color and felt almost as bad as my right foot, but not quite.  Its most worse in the mornings.  During my runs in the past few weeks, my shins, calves and feet would hurt but I just thought it was normal aches and pains from running.  Who knew there were such things as "stress sprains?"  Or perhaps in a worst-case scenario they are even stress fractures.  Regardless of what they are or how they came about, I'm praying that they will go away or at least subside just enough to get me through Secret City.  I know they will.  I have asked the good Lord to get me through this and He will. 

I'm just so bumfuzzled about all this.  I had no idea you could get such things, much less that what I was doing would cause such.  This week will be interesting.  LOTS of ice on the schedule.

Spring, Sprang, Sprung

Ohhhhh *Boy*.....  My right foot you see.....  the one I couldn't walk on this morning..... is black and blue and swollen on both sides. 

I have No idea what this will mean for the next week.  :(  I have NO idea what happened.  NurseMother says I must have sprained it somehow.  I have 8 days to go.  Pray I get through this!