Beat Down But Not Broken

I cannot believe it is August already. For the last 7 years, I have averaged at least 14 running events per so looking at the calendar, I cannot believe that I have only run in 3 running events this year and the last one was in April. I have had long layoff but I also know that it has just been a tremendous battle to get back to the level of running that I am accustom to. After running the trail race in April, I just felt like my body was worn down. I started to skip running events because I just felt like I was not prepared. The events came and went but for the first time I also felt like I could skip an event. In the past, I ran an event just because I was afraid to turn it down and I felt like skipping an event meant that I was losing my edge but I learned the hard way last year by trying to run event after event without rest and while hurt and my performances continued to decline. I have been pounding the road for over eight year’s straight without a break and it was time for a break.


Most people tried to come back slow and ease back into things but not me. In my normal fashion, I went out at the beginning of July and tried to run on one of the hardest trails in the state up at Mt. Wilson and just my luck, I hurt my foot running downhill so it seemed like my comeback was on hold once again. I woke up the day after Mt. Wilson and my foot was swollen, and I could not walk without limping. I knew something was wrong. I decided to go get an x-ray to be sure I did not break my foot. I am lucky because there are no broken bones in my foot but there is still the factor of having a stress fracture which basically means running must come to a halt but for some reason, I saw this as a challenge. All of a sudden, I felt like I had to get out and run or do something so instead of resting, I got up the next morning and road my bike down to the SM stairs. Then the next day I got up and hit a trail and walked about 3 miles. I had to battle pain in my foot every step of the way but refused to stop. Sure, I know that I am crazy and I am risking further injury but I am a runner and runners do things that make no sense but one thing I will not do is make excuses.


It has been over 10 months since I have last run a 5k but this Saturday, I am choosing to come out of the shadows and run the Filipino 5k which is one of the worst courses in a 5k but I love the challenge and I love the event so I plan to run it year after year whether I am hurt or not. It has been a long road and I have a long way to but I embrace the challenge.

One step at a time…