It has been some time since I posted to this blog – April 26, in fact, the day of the Azalea Festival 5-K in Pickens. That is because I have not completed a race since then. I ambitiously signed up for two races this summer but did not complete either of them. The Twilight 5-K back in August, our home race organized by Derek Taylor and the Rotary Club, would have been a good opportunity to see if I had continued to recover from the fractured ribs back in February, an injury to my knee in the same incident (determined by an orthopedist in Brevard to be a Morel-LavallĂ©e lesion), and more importantly my lack of training. It was a hard summer for me, rainy days and high humidity often hampering my running, and off-and-on sickness that left me fatigued. So I cheered at the finish line of the Twilight 5-K for my fellow friends and runners who managed to gamely finish in the hardest rain I think in the history of that race.
The second race was the Autumn Breeze in Tallulah Gorge, but again I did not feel race-ready and opted to stay home. That was a hard decision, because it is perhaps the most beautiful course of all the races I regularly complete.
To add insult to injury, or injury to injury, I had another fall on August 19, slipping in the rain on the slick stone walkway to our back door while carrying in my arms a circular saw, a drill, and a sander, which left an impressive blue saw-shaped bruise on my chest. A week later, an X-ray confirmed that my ribs and sternum were badly bruised but not broken. But it has been a slow recovery since then, my weekly mileage slipping to single digits (and zero on one week). I was no longer able to even do my morning pushups at first. But now, eight weeks later, I see improvement every day, which is very encouraging. As past injuries have shown me, the human body is a wonderful and miraculous thing. Cuts and scrapes disappear in time, sore ribs and muscles heal, fitness and strength returns. I have gained a new appreciation for my aging body and its ability to rise up and recover. I will never recover the ability to run marathons, or even half marathons, but slowly and patiently I have made progress. Now that cool, dry, beautiful October is here, running has become not a painful chore but a joy once again. I am enjoying increasing my weekly mileage and completing tempo runs and intervals. I am in training!
Perhaps in retrospect it is a good thing that I have not been able to complete any races since April. It has permitted me to prepare more thoroughly, so that perhaps I can do better than my 47:42 finish time in the Azalea Festival 5-K. That was my second slowest time ever in a 5-K, although not my slowest; that distinction goes to the Chattooga Belle Farm Wine Run 5-K (see post of October 3, 2021), a cross-country event most of which Martha and I opted to walk. It is perhaps a good thing to experience a Personal Worst at some point in one’s running career so that every other race afterward compares favorably.
I have not given up on running or racing. If no other event pops up before then, Martha and I have both signed up for the Black Mountain Turkey Trot 5-K on Thanksgiving Day, to be followed by Thanksgiving Dinner. To be followed by thankful hearts.
