I can’t even believe it’s been ONE year since I ran the Chicago Marathon!!! I couldn’t even dream of attempting that now. Not to mention, thank goodness I wasn’t signed up for this year since all races are cancelled due to COVID-19 đŚ
You might wonder why in the world I would sign up to run 26.2 miles. Well….I blame Autism Speaks for that! I saw they were advertising for runners to sign up for Chicago and it just kept popping up in my Facebook newsfeed. So one day, I grew a giant pair of balls and just took the plunge. I knew I would never sign up without a great cause behind me and running a marathon is something I’ve always wanted to do. I did it for Luca. I did it for myself. I did for anyone who benefited from the funding I raised in my fundraiser. I raised over $3500 and that right there, that’s what kept me motivated. I needed to be held accountable to all of the people who donated to my cause and supported me.
On the first day of training with CARA (Chicago Area Runners Association), I somehow managed to hurt my knee on a 6 mile run. Little did I know, that injury wasn’t going away. I took some time off, I tried to power through it, I tried the chiropractor and deep tissue massage…..I tried it all BEFORE I finally gave in and went to the doctor.
My sports medicine doctor came highly recommended and specializes in running related injuries. I had an MRI on my knee a couple months in since the aggressive physical therapy program we thought would work wasn’t doing a thing. The good news is that there wasn’t anything majorly wrong, but the bad news was the amount of swelling. I had Patellofemoral Syndrome and IT Band Syndrome . Again, nothing major in most cases, but I couldn’t take time off to heal because I was training for a marathon.
SOOOOO…..the LONGEST run I did for my training before the marathon was 13.1 miles. That’s right, only HALF of what I would be running on race day.
So race day, that was brutal. I did okay for the first 10 miles. After that, my knee was just done. Unfortunately, it couldn’t really be done since I still wasn’t even half way to the finish line. My knee tried to give out on me more than once and I had to stop my slow job and walk (as you can see from my times). But you know what, I did it. I did it, I did it, I did it!! I swore I would never run another again….but, I should know better that you should never say never đ
Autism Speaks holds a huge place in my heart because of Luca. If he understood what his mommy did for him, I know he would be proud. I couldn’t have done it without him, the support from everyone I know and Bio Freeze đ
Loving Luca 