On Sunday I’m running the Ft. Lauderdale Half Marathon! I have a little history with this race….
In 2018 I trained for the full marathon. It was going to be my “big comeback”. I ran marathons before my kids were born, but hadn’t run any since then and I wanted to get back to it. My training went well, all the way up through my last 22 mile long run.
Then, I was running an easy 12 mile run during my taper and felt a funny sensation in my glutes. Hmmm, that’s odd. I finished that run, but then could barely walk back home. What in the world…???
After an emergency visit to my sports chiropractor, it was determined that it was either a stress fracture in my sacrum (ACK!) or inflammation in my SI joint- either way, due to the searing pain, I couldn’t run and had to miss that marathon. (It turned out to be inflammation and not a stress fracture, phew.)
The “funny” thing (not ha ha funny, but the other kind) is that when I registered for that marathon, my husband decided to run the half marathon so we could run together and then he could be there to cheer me on. After he registered, some of his friends registered to run as well. So when race day came around, they all went off to run without me! Sob.
Fast forward to the following year, 2019. After recovering from the SI inflammation I had gone back to training, and once again signed up to run the marathon. A couple months before the race, I felt an alarming pain in my hip. This time, I immediately cut back my training and switched from the full marathon to the half.
I was a little disappointed about that, but I remembered how I felt the previous year when I couldn’t run at all. I ran the half marathon that year in a time of 1:57, which was my goal. I felt really good about that! It wasn’t as fast as I ran before having kids, but I thought it was a good beginning to getting some speed back. Now, I’m wondering if that post-baby PR will stand forever.
For the next three years, various things kept me from running this race. There was Covid, there were injuries, and there was also my belief that you don’t pay $100 to run a race just for the fun of it- you have to train, and have a time goal! If I didn’t feel I could “race” it and have a decent finish time, it didn’t seem worth doing.
Then, this year a blogger friend announced that she was coming down to run the race. My husband also expressed interest in running it again, so I reluctantly registered for the half. The thought of running it much, much slower than I did in 2019 was tough to accept. But I knew I couldn’t do any speed work and risk getting injured, because I have a big goal race coming up in April.
I wasn’t really looking forward to it, but had already committed, i.e. paid for it and told my friend and husband I would do it. My husband was having trouble finding the time to train properly, and then right when he needed to get in some serious long runs, he got Covid and that was the final nail in the coffin. He was out.
Well, that left me and my blogging friend! Except that earlier this week she emailed me to say that after she arrived in Florida, she injured her foot (I’m going to let her tell her own story on her blog) and wouldn’t be running the race.
Now, wait a minute! How did I end up running this race alone??? I didn’t even want to do it in the first place! I’m going to have to get up at 3:15 am on Sunday morning, drive down to Ft. Lauderdale by myself, and run this race at a snail’s pace, which I’ve always been opposed to. How did I get myself into this, anyway?
Then… I had a major mindset shift. I’m the LUCKY one this time. I GET to run the race, while others are sitting at home. So what if I’m slow- no one cares.
Sometimes you can do everything right, and be taken out at the last minute by illness, injury, or a freak accident. I’ve been there. This year, everything came together for me and I get to show up at the starting line of this race, healthy and ready to run.
I can’t wait.
23 Responses
Oh Jenny, I just love this post and your reframing of the situation and getting a better understanding of the whole backstory of your experience with this marathon/half.
(Also, slow is very relative. Most people can’t run 5K let alone a marathon…so you are fast. Name it and claim it!)
I’m so sorry your husband and friend won’t be able to participate, BUT YOU GET TO THIS TIME.
And while it might be hard to consider a slower time than before, YOU CAN RUN. I mean…I couldn’t run a half if my life depended on it (my life might end if I tried right now?!). And you’re training for an ultra-race. You are an incredible athlete who juggles it all around a busy work and life schedule and I am just in major amazement at your accomplishments, especially given your battle with various injuries. You have grit and determination and I’m just beyond thrilled you’re running this half (wish I could be there to cheer you on), and hope it’s a lot of fun.
I can’t wait to hear all the fun news from your day. Like…will you spot a jeans-wearing runner? Maybe he was using that 5K last year to train for this half?
Ha ha Elisabeth, it’s supposed to be a very warm day so I better not see anyone wearing jeans!!!
Thanks for the amazing pep talk.
I like your mindset shift! You are the lucky one! I’ll be thinking of you on Sunday and will look forward to the update.
On a note about SI, have you ever worn an SI belt to run with? It’s like a support brace that just is a belt that goes around your hips. After I injured my hip in 2019, my physio got me wearing one, and it helped so much. I still wear it while running. Just a thought, if you ever have trouble with the SI joint.
Thank goodness it wasn’t a stress fracture in the sacrum. I don’t even know what you would do for an injury like that! Rest, I guess.
No, I’ve never heard of an SI belt but I’ll check it out. I do seem to get a lot of things going on in my hips.
Yes, a sacral stress fracture would be no fun. You just have to rest, and that means there’s a LOT of things you can’t do while it’s healing. I’m lucky that’s not what it was.
I like your mindset shift! I have had to reframe things since having kids – and since having RA. I “get” to workout – I say this all the time around my kids so they hopefully will have a positive relationship with exercise. I have an easier time letting go of my pre-kid PRs because I know I just do not have the time to put into running like I did in the past, and I need to be gentle with myself since I have RA and a history of hip issues (had surgery for a labral tear in 2016). I have capped my distance at 10k for now as I realized a 10 mile race was too long at this stage of parenting. Plus my time in that 10 mile I did in 2021 was so depressingly slow – so I’m not always good at excepting my limitations…
I know of another blogger doing this race – I think it’s the same one Sarah Hart-Unger of theshubox.com is doing! I hope you have a great race experience!!
Oh, wow! I will definitely check out her blog. I looked at it briefly and she’s a fellow South Floridian.
Yes, why is it so hard to accept limitations? I guess I don’t want to admit I’m getting older or something??
Whenever I’m grumpy about working out, that is what I always say – I GET to move my body and not everybody else is as lucky as I am. It’s definitely a mental hack that works well for me!
Good luck with your race and have a great time!
Yes, that’s a great way to think- not everyone can move their bodies like we can. We’re lucky!
Oh Jenny what a great and positive way to reframe this experience! I hope that the run goes really well!
Thank you Suzanne!
This is so exciting!!! Congrats on GETTING to run a half. Yes race day mornings are a pain with the early wakeups, etc, and it sucks that you have to run alone instead of with your hubs and friend but…something tells me you’re going to have a blast!
Thank you Birchie! There’s been yet another odd development which will be revealed in tomorrow’s Weekly Rundown.
What a history you have with this race! I love how you reframed going it without your people running on Sunday and I’m sending you all the thoughts of a fun, fast race (and that the 3:15 wake-up goes as smooth as something like that can)!
Reframing is everything! Somehow early wakeups on race morning are never really that bad- probably because I’m not sleeping that soundly anyway (knowing that I have to get up in the middle of the night.)
You can do everything right and still end up injured. Been there many times. Running is not linear at all. Sometimes we peak when we least expect it and sometimes we crash when we think everything should go smashing. I always feel lucky to be running a race and I am trying not to be hard on myself about pace. Hope you have fun this weekend!
Yes, I have to remind myself- enjoy the training, because nothing else is guaranteed. There’s no guarantee you’ll be able to run your race, o matter what you do.
You know how I feel.
Hope you run it and have fun.
Thank you Darlene! You know by now how it turned out.
WE ran it “together” in 2019, did we talk about that?. That was the last time I ran it too. I deferred in 2020 due to my IT Band injury and then didn’t feel COVID safe yet in 2021 and just never went back. As we discussed, February is just too hot. I’d only even consider it again if it moved back to January like it was in 2020, but not sure even then
Cari, Darlene and I are talking about doing a DIFFERENT Florida half next year! We haven’t picked one yet. Maybe you can join us!
I am so sad reading this after I read the latest post first. I DO applaud your re-frame. If you haven’t read Good for a Girl: A Woman Running in a Man’s World by Lauren Fleshman, I recommend it– such a great book about running.
No, I haven’t read it but I want to! Thanks for reminding me.