Happy 2015! I'm a little late with that - but at least its still January!
2014 held many setbacks for me. The year started with my toes still injured from the 2013 NYC Marathon - which led to me not really running much early in the year. One of the worst pre-marathon mistakes you could possibly make is not trimming your toenails. I doubt that I'll ever forget again....
By March, my toenails were better and I was back to running shorter distances. But by April, the herniated disc in my lower back made it difficult to walk, running seemed like a distant possibility.
After a cortisone injection and quite a bit of physical therapy, I started running again. Despite having guaranteed entry into the 2014 NYC marathon, we decided to register for a cheaper marathon in case medical issues prevented me from running. So we registered and trained for the 2014 Lehigh Valley Via Half marathon. We quit the race after 23 miles (I'll save the details of that for another post).
Through it all, I managed to gain quite a bit of weight (40 lbs total since April 2013) and become significantly slower than I'd previously been. Since I can't change the past, I'll just do better in the future. Now for the optimistic part of this post!
Even with all of the 2014 setbacks, we were able to get in our NYRR 9+1 to qualify for the 2015 NYC Marathon, for which Alek and I have both registered. I've also started working with a personal trainer to help me work toward becoming stronger overall so that I can mitigate my risk of future back flare ups.
We've signed up for Spartans twice before, and not run them because we weren't ready. This year, we're doing it. We're signed up for the May 9 Citifield Spartan. Team Sadpony, late morning wave (10:45am - 12:00pm) with a preference for 11:30, just in case you'd care to join!
Our planned Half Marathons so far are:
January 25 - Fred Lebow Manhattan Half (yes, we completed it I'll write a post later this week).
February 22 - Love Rox Half Marathon (Richmond VA)
March 21- Sleepy Hollow Half Marathon
April 12 - Queens Half Marathon
May 19 - Brooklyn Half Marathon
We have ideas for a few of the remaining races, but want to make sure that we can register before they sell out.
I'm already feeling much more healthy! Its good to feel like I'm back on track!
