All Stop

Stop.

It's a pretty obvious sign.  As a driver, I see it every day countless times.  It always means the same thing:

Stop.

Sometimes it's painful.  Sometimes it's tough.  Most of the time it keeps me from getting where I want to go as quickly as I want to.

While sometimes its painful.
It's necessary.

As a runner, it's both painful and necessary for me right now.  Six weeks ago I killed an awesome 18-mile run.  I ran 18 miles in a few minutes faster than I ran 17 the weekend before.  I felt amazing.  I felt on top of the world.  In preparing for my upcoming marathon (Indy Monumental), I was beginning to think that I could do it.

Near the end (sometime... I'm not really sure), I strained a tendon in my ankle.  At the time, I thought it was just the aches and pains that come with being a long distance runner (after 18 miles, things hurt).  But in the next few days, I realized that it was more.  But I tried to continue...

For the past six weeks, I've been nursing it along... trying to hold on to this marathon cycle.  I've been icing it, elevating it, resting it, wearing a brace for it, everything you can imagine.  Saturday it came to a breaking point: If I couldn't do the 15 miles that I had planned (so I could still get a couple 20's in), it wasn't going to happen.

After a few miles it became apparent: stop.

So I am.

I'm going to stop.  I'm going to rest.  I'm going to allow my ankle to heal the way I should have 6 weeks ago.




I'm hoping to get back out there in time to do a turkey trot (on Thanksgiving) but for now, I'm not thinking about that.

Keep running friends!

JC


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