Toe-Shoes Tina: Eating The Elephant

Distance:  20.02 miles (Bam!)

Pace:  10:31

Wine:  2 glasses to celebrate a very good day at work

Purple feet:  1

There is an old joke:  “How do you eat an elephant?  . . .  One bite at a time.”  I can’t remember which of the dozens of running books and magazines I’ve read used that concept to explain distance running, but it stuck with me.  Running 20 miles is overwhelming, just like eating an elephant.  So you don’t think about the entire task.  You break it down into small manageable “bites.”  Focus on the bite directly in front of you instead of all the bites you’ll have to take.  So, tasked with running 20 miles, I did not think about 20 miles.  I thought only about the mile I was on.  And you know what?  The run was much better than I thought it could be.  (Note, I am not calling it enjoyable because that would be a lie.)

(Yummy!  Just kidding, I won’t even eat a cow or pig, so an elephant is definitely out of the question.)

When I began marathon training, I doubted I would ever run 20 miles, let alone run 20 miles on a purple foot less than a week after (likely) breaking two toes.    But, holy crap, I just did!  And, wow, does that make me sound tougher than I am!  I know some seriously tough people, and I’m not one of them.  I’m friends with fighters who are okay with getting punched in the face and shin-to-shin contact.  One of my former coaches fought an entire professional boxing match with a torn bicep.  I’m friends with Dave Krupski (prior guest blogger), who ran 135 miles through Death Valley in July and then followed it up by falling down a mountain during a trail run and still making it several miles to the aid station on his own.  Husband #1 has taken more hockey sticks and pucks to the face than I can count, yet still refuses to wear a sufficiently protective helmet.  All things considered, I am not tough.  Not surprisingly, these people had very different reactions to my broken toes than my other friends.  Indeed, my toe injury made me realize my friends are divided into two camps:  (1) “Walk it off!  It’s just broken toes, you can tape ‘em up and run on them.”; and (2) “Holy crap!  Have you consulted a specialist?  At the very least you should stay off it!”  I love all the concern shown by my friends in camp #2.  But it turns out camp #1 was right. 

(Monty Python:  clearly in camp #1.)

On Monday, three days after the injury, I took my toes out for a test run.  I was scheduled to do a 5 mile tempo run, but decided I would just take it slow and see how it felt.  Well, it felt okay.  My foot has a baseline level of stiffness and pain, but that is not worsened by bearing weight on the toes.  My running stride didn’t hurt my foot.  (The lightest touch on the top of my foot, though?  OUCH!)  So I was able to run my full 5 miles.  And what is more, I did it much faster than I expected.  I thought I was starting slowly, but my first mile ended up being 8:45 and felt fine.  So I sped up to a proper tempo pace and ended up running negative splits for an average pace of 8:25.  I was elated and resumed plans for a 20 mile run Thursday.  I desperately needed this 20 mile run to fuel my confidence and convince me I can still do a marathon.  I am now convinced. 

(My poor purple foot after running 20 miles.)

The run itself was uneventful.  I stuck to my plan of just focusing on the mile I was currently running and not on the insane number of miles that followed.  Not surprisingly, I started out too fast.  Most of my first 12 miles were under 10 minutes.  I realized, logically, that my pace was too aggressive, but didn’t try very hard to slow down, evidently believing that slacking on my long runs over the holidays magically improved my running ability.  It didn’t.  The early speed came back to bite me around miles 14-15.  I had to slow down.  Then I had to take a couple walk breaks during my last 2.5 miles.  I wasn’t tired from a cardio perspective, but my joints and muscles just felt tight and stiff.  It was like they had been locked into my running stride position for too long.  I needed to walk to change the way my legs were moving.  Once I did that, they loosened up and I could run again for a bit.  I did that 3 or 4 times and realized I will probably have to do the same thing during the marathon, seeing as how it is 6.2 miles longer than my run today.  I decided I am okay with that.  Runners World says there is no shame in walk breaks. And while I would love to finish my marathon in under 4:30, a much more realistic goal for me is under 5:00.  I can always aim for a faster time in my next marathon, right??? In any event, I realized my 20-mile pace was actually faster than my 18 mile pace from about a month ago.  So maybe being lazy over the holidays is a fantastic running plan.

(Oh, and despite Slo Jo's very well reasoned argument about not needing to pig out after a long run, I wolfed down a croissant after my 20 miles to replace my glycogen stores.  Shut up, they need replenishing!)