Sep 9
Three days ago, I walked 5 miles.
Yesterday, I ran 2.5 miles on the Alter-G treadmill at 80% of my body
weight. After the treadmill, my physical
therapist had me start doing various jumping isometric exercises. Today, I am in DC for a mid-morning meeting
on E Street. I leave my hotel and head a
few blocks south to the Washington Monument.
To avoid any traffic, I decide that I will just run laps around the
block around the monument. After the
first block, I decide to see how running feels.
It is an awkward start, but I am able to run. It is hard, and the leg hurts a fair bit, but
I run one length of the square. I then
walk a length and run another length.
Then I get ambitious and run two lengths, or halfway around the
monument. I end up doing that a few
times before heading back to my hotel. The
total length of my walk-run is over 4 miles.
Sep 11
I run 1.5 miles non-stop and then two days later I run 3 miles. This is good as I signed up for a 5k race on
Sep 26.
Sep 20
I run 5 miles along the river walk in San Antonio. It is warm and humid, and my pace is very
slow—around 13 minutes per mile. It is
now time to start tapering a little for my race in six days.
Sep 26
It is game day! There are a
couple of younger guys from my office running this race as well. I have been teasing the faster of the two
that it would be embarrassing if an old man with a broken leg managed to finish
ahead of him. Zach says there is no chance
that I am going to beat him. Caleb thinks
that I have a chance to beat him.
Mile 1: 9:38
At the start, Zach is off and quickly pulls away. Caleb is close by, but then slowly pulls ahead
of me. I keep Caleb in my sights and think
that I am probably better than 10-minute mile pace. Caleb is probably about 20 seconds ahead of
me when I get to the one-mile mark. This
is an exciting start, and I think I should be able to finish under 30 minutes.
Mile 2: 10:00
I keep Caleb within my sights, and I think I may have closed the gap a
little despite slowing down on this second mile. I continue to push hard, but now it is time
to push harder if I am going to catch Caleb and finish under 30 minutes.
Mile 3: 9:34
There is no one between me and Caleb.
I focus on running as smoothly as I can.
As we swing around our Lockheed building, I am closely the gap quickly. When the course turns into a little downhill,
I see my opportunity. I pull even with
Caleb and then push hard to open up a gap.
I pass a couple of other runners.
One of those runners hangs with me, and I keep thinking that Caleb is
going to try to make a move back on me.
Finish: 30:05
I manage to put in a decent pace over the
last tenth of a mile. I manage to keep any
runners from passing me in the final stretch.
Unfortunately, the last 0.12 miles takes me 53 seconds, which is 5
seconds longer than I needed to sneak under 30 minutes. However, this is a new PR for post tibial plateau
fracture.
Zach managed to finish almost 4 minutes ahead
of me in 26:18. Caleb finishes 13
seconds behind me. Overall, I am happy
with my run, my effort, and my progress.
Now it is time to start lengthening the runs out. I am still going to PT twice a week for now. There are 11 weeks until Hellgate. I think I can meet my threshold of running at
least 20 miles before then, but how much farther can I go? I am planning to visit the Virginia Blue
Ridge Mountains in early November for a training run. Hellgate this year is December 12th. Until then…
Never stop running,
Darin
