Frostbite 15K & Dr's Appointment Recap

Yea, you read it right.

Sunday was Frostbite 15K.  I didn't race.  I ran.  I ran conversation pace, made friends with a woman training for a Du, to the point where we're now FB friends.  I mean, seriously.  Who does that?  Anyway, I spent a lot of the race mentally repeating "you need to slow down so you don't hurt yourself."  instead of what I usually say in a race.

The good - We are a FUN posse.  Roll call included T, Kty, DeNiece, 3L, Kc, & Iron J.

We laugh a LOT.  There were no visible pre-race nerves.  In fact, the race sort of started w/o any big HooRAH! or anything... we were just sort of ambling toward the mats and took up running.  I love that it's chip timed.  (miles 1,2,3 8:56, 8:26, 8:33).  The Head Coach of MTT yelled "Where are your SOCKS!" at the first H2O stop.  The first few miles the Fankle felt tight, but OK.  I didn't love the down hills, but the uphills were not an issue, and there were more uphills on the out than on the back.

Does anyone else see a flaw in my logic?

The bad - the course takes you through a bit of grass at one point.  Frozen grass.  Fankle started cursing at me here.  The out and back is literally OUT and BACK, so... around the cone?  Yea, FANKLE didn't like that tight tight turn. (4,5,6 8:39, 8:52, 9:14)

The UGLY- after the second bit of grass, the course has a lot of down hill sections.  Uh, yea.  So I slowed my pace even a touch more (7,8,9 9:20, 8:40, 9:10), concentrated on my form, walked the H2O stops, said Hi to the volunteers, coached a girl who was really struggling to hold her sub 9 m/mi pace for 1/2 mile around mile 8 marker or so (ultimately she finished right behind me - good job, whoever you are), and finished in, well, a lot of pain, but with all my friends cheering for me at the finish!  And then we cheered for Kty & IronJ's finish.

I did get a PR, but if I'd been able to race I know I could have gone faster.  I call it a PU.  Still, a 7 minute PR on a hurt fankle is fine, I suppose.  1:22:52.  Uhg, no, forgive me....  I'm sorry, there's a little piece of me that wishes I'd driven down, hung out, laughed, and taken a DNS over putting up a race finish time that doesn't reflect who I really am as a runner.  I'm a PR because I take pride in my accomplishments.

Anyway, the ride home was filled with SO MUCH LAUGHTER and JOY in the car, we had tears in our eyes as we discussed fun words to say and possible definitions of those words... like scungilli...  what COULD it mean if it was a verb?  An adjective?  Yes, THESE are the things we talk about.

Today was the X-ray & Md's appointment - It's not a break.  It's a sprain.  Md not unhappy with how it's healing actually.  Starting today no running until next Monday, then ease in at 50%, and the following week hopefully resume normal running/training.  I'm wearing a sexy brace over my tall socks for the next 2-3 weeks while I'm not running or swimming.  Over all, this is hopeful news.