Marathon worries

The San Diego marathon is almost here...this Sunday, in fact. I have been training since January 1 for this event. Hundreds of hours spent running. Hundreds of miles I've ran...all over Sacramento and through multiple cities. So how is it that I am nervous?

I have never trained so diligently for a running event. I stuck to the training schedule week after week. Pushing through the hard times to get the mileage I needed. Telling myself to keep running when my legs were telling me to stop. Running on a treadmill when it was too dark or rainy to run outside. I was able to stay injury free through 5 months of training, until... 3 weeks before the event.

I wouldn't call it an injury quite yet, it's more like an injury waiting to happen. I have a weird feeling/pain in my left leg. Just above my Achilles tendon and below my calf muscle. I think it is technically considered my Achilles tendon, but I'm not sure. It happened during my 22 mile run attempt. I woke up to rain on the Sunday I had planned to run my 22 miles. I postponed my run until the weather cleared up a bit. The weather report said it should be rain-free for the next 4 hours (or at least below 50% chance of rain), so I headed out. Shannon and I ran the first 10 miles together and then Ryan joined me on his bike. I felt great and wasn't worried about the 22 miles at all. We started to hear thunder (really loud) and saw rain in the distance. We were at about 14 miles when it hit us...HAIL! My bare legs (I was wearing shorts) were getting hammered with hail. I could feel it through my long sleeved shirt! After the hail came the rain...and lots of it. It was POURING! I had no choice but to keep running. We were about 3-4 miles from the car and there was no where to stop and hide from the weather. So I kept running...and Ryan was on his bike next to me (continuously telling me that I'm crazy). I was soaked from head to toe. The original plan was to run about 2 miles past the car and turn around to make it a 22 mile run. But as soon as we got to the car, we jumped in and headed home. I was so bummed that I couldn't finish the run. Running is so much of a mental sport and I really wanted to finish the 22 miles so I would have the confidence during the marathon (even though I had completed 21 miles 2 weeks before). So when we arrived at home, I decided I would change out of my drenched clothes and shoes, put on dry running attire, and finish the 22 miles on the treadmill. It sounded like a good idea at the time, but as I ran about 2 miles on the treadmill, my leg started hurting. I think my muscles had gotten cold in the rain and tightened up on the drive home. So I stopped running, took an ice bath, and took it easy the rest of the day...bummed that I didn't get to the 22 mile mark.

Since then, I have had that weird feeling/pain in my leg. I took it easy the past 2 weeks in hopes that it would get better before race day. Some days (short runs) it would feel great, and other days it would start to hurt again. I really cut down my running and just focused on getting better.

But, after running 5 days a week and at the high mileage I have been training at, not running is torturing me! Not only do I feel like a lazy bum, but I am so worried that I am compromising all the endurance training I have worked so hard for. I keep telling myself that healing an injury is more important than running on an injury 2 weeks before the marathon, but it is a constant battle in my mind.

So here I am, week of the marathon. 3 weeks ago (before the 22 mile run), I felt so confident. I was even considering trying to qualify for Boston. But now, I'm just hoping my leg feels good for the 26.2 miles and that my endurance can still carry me through 4 hours of constant running. I have ran 3 miles every morning this week and feel good, but 3 miles is no where near 26.2 miles. So we'll just have to see how it goes on Sunday...