Well, I still have a herniated disc and numbness/mild soreness in my upper left leg, but I’m feeling good enough to give Sunday’s Crest Best 10 Miler a try.
Obviously, I’m way behind in my training, but have completed runs of 10, 3.1 and five miles this past week. The 10-mile run didn’t go all that great, as my left leg pretty much gave out completely by mile 7 – I was basically just pushing off with my right leg and just landing on my left to stay upright. It took me just under 1 hour, 52 minutes to complete, which is over 20 minutes more than my 10-mile personal best…so that’s kind of frustrating.
The 3.1-mile run was better, but I really felt more like myself during the 5-mile outing. It was first time I was able to cover five miles at an under 10-minute-mile pace (9:40/mile, to be exact) in what seems like forever.
My goal for Sunday is to finish in less than 1 hour, 40 minutes. That’s way off my 10-mile personal best time of 1:27:03, but I have to be realistic. I’m not close to 100 percent and I haven’t been training as much as I should have been. And, really, I don’t want to even try to push it because I don’t want to put too much stress on my back and aggravate it again like I did during Labor Day weekend.
My physical therapist, who used to be a more avid runner, has supported my shorter runs if I’m feeling up to it. She’s not all that crazy about my doing a 10-mile race, but she knows I’m going to do it anyway if I feel I’m up to it. She just asked me to take it easy…so that’s going to be my approach.
I’m basically using the Crest Best 10 Miler as a training run for next month’s Philadelphia Marathon. That’s the race I’m really concerned about. The injection treatment for my herniated disc is scheduled for October 18, and I’m hoping to try a 16- or 18-mile run between now and then since I’ll have to take it easy for awhile after the treatment (also, I have possible jury duty the following week so that may cut into training time).
If the treatment doesn’t really work, I’ll probably need surgery. But I’ll schedule that for after Philly and hope I can get through 26.2 miles, but it’s going to be tough. It’s one thing to have to walk part of the course, which I did for much of the final eight miles last year. It’s quite another to do it on one leg, which may very well happen if I’m in the same condition I’m in now.
But that’s for next month. Right now, as the headline says, I’m a go for the Crest Best 10 Miler on Sunday. If you would like to track my progress, please click on “Is Live Tracking Available for This Event?” on the event’s FAQ page. There are instructions on how to find/download the DelMoSports Elite Events app for both iOS and Android, and a link for desktop tracking is promised to be available soon.
*** 10/6/18 UPDATE ***
Well, the desktop link for live tracking hasn’t been posted yet and today is the first day of the Crest Best Run Fest (kids race, 5K). I did find a URL that would work on desktop, but it asks you to register or login with Facebook in order to look up a runner. That leaves the best option as the DelMoSports Elite Events app, but it’s doing something a bit weird on my iPhone…you may have to open/close the app a few times before the Crest Best info appears (you may see previous events instead…if you do, close and open the app again until the Crest Best info shows up).
Brian Kelley 