I had two visits to two different foot surgeons who both agreed they would not do surgery until I stop wanting to race and run at a level I have been as it would just be a bandaid and would not correct if I continued.  I have therefore come to the conclusion that if I want longevity in my running, I will need to cut back again to short distance racing and training. I can only pretend that I have normal feet for so long. Long runs are not really all that comfortable anymore. And if I look down at my foot (although both have issues), I realize that I need these big guys (yes, size 10!) to take me into my old age. Last week as I was driving, I saw a woman running who had to have been close to 70 if not older. I thought, hmmm, will that be me? Not if I keep this up it won’t. Prior to my feet surgery in 2010 I had cut back to 5-10Km racing, shorter tri’s (olympic being longest), and shorter training runs for about 6 yrs. I was fine with it and enjoyed the feeling of getting faster and being competitive. Fast forward to post surgery and I thought, hmmmm with these new feet I think I can tolerate the middle distance again. Never did I contemplate going back to long distance (marathon, Ironman), but half seemed to be a new – old challenge. Well I guess I proved that I could do that for a few years until my feetsies said , yah , no, you are done. Well at least done for a little while again.

I have my half IM planned for June 22 in Syracuse. My ” A” goal was to try to qualify for IM70.3 Mt. Tremblant (the 70.3 Worlds). However after a month off of running and this crappy weather curtailing some training , my goal now is to get to the start line, race to my best, but not expect anything big to come out of it. This will be my swan song long course race for a while if not for good.  To be honest, I am still not sure 100% that I will get to the start line. Part of me is really wanting to still go and just do it. The other part of me (the really Type A competitive part ….. although I am not sure there is really any difference between the two!!!), says if I can’t give it my all, maybe I should just give in to it and skip it all together. I will keep assessing how I feel and what I truly feel inside like doing. I think so many times many us of do what we think we “ought” to do vs. what we truly feel we “want ” to do. I am sort of struggling with this right now for this event. Not to mention I put out some good $$ to register and have always wanted to complete a 70.3 sanctioned race.

I am planning on running the Sporting Life 10km next weekend. My good friend Cory Freedman got the gig as race director so it gives me extra pride and motivation to run it knowing she is behind the operation. I always love this race. Straight down Yonge street, flying downhill for most of it. Two years ago, I went sub 40 for the first time and won some great swag too. This year, my goal is to go sub 42:00. Obviously with the month off and just coming back 4 weeks ago, my speed is not where it was before, but that’s okay as I will go run it as a good speed workout. Since Syracuse may still be in my plans, I will not do a taper for this and will likely try to get in a good ride the day before.

After this event, I will do Cory’s next event, the T.O. Women’s Half Marathon ( a Mizuno sponsored event!)  . Again I will use this as a training run. I usually do the 5km with my daughter but she decided this year she wants to run solo, so instead of the 5km I will use the half as a long run opportunity. This will be a good test to see if I can actually not “race” something. Ha Ha……as if, but I am in no way close to racing a half marathon. I like to use the virtual partner function on my Garmin 910XT, so will make sure I don’t get too far ahead of him!

Jada and I after the 5km last May.

So I guess that’s it on the update. Realizing what my limitations are and accepting them as my new plan to fitness and racing. It’s not all about the end result, but the journey along the way. I have to keep that enjoyment of just staying fit and doing races for the fun and enjoyment of it all. Plus, I also love that my daughter sees both my husband and I being active and she loves to do so too!

I have been racing since 1998. It’s been such  big part of my life and who I am for so long that I could not imagine not being involved and continuing on, but perhaps taking a bit of that pressure off at least for this year will be a good thing for me.

Still hoping for spring to come along !!!