Rock n Roll Half Marathon

The Rock n Roll Half Marathon is almost four weeks away.  It’s hard to believe that it’s been a year since the last one. Training has been gearing up with longer runs, making sure our weekday runs are done, and staying injury free.

My biggest goal for this half marathon is to not only start this race pain and injury-free but to end it that way.

The first year I ran this half marathon, I had a stress fracture on my inner sesamoid bone on my right foot.

I fractured the inner sesamoid bone

As a result of that injury, I spent almost 8 weeks in a plastic boot after the race. This was followed by several weeks of walking as I got use to my new orthotics. When I was finally able to start running, it was just for a few minutes before I had to walk. This run/walk was repeated over several more weeks allowing me to slowly increase my running time and decreasse my walking time.

Soon I was running again and training for my second Rock n Roll Half Marathon. As that half marathon drew closer and our training runs meant 8, 10, 12 miles, my IT Bands started to flare up around both knees. I found myself

IT Band

walking and/or not being able to finish those training runs. I took myself to physical therapy. I found out I had been running more on the side of my right foot as I was unconciously protecting my now-healed fractured. I had to conciously correct my stride as I worked to strengthen my IT Bands.  

Though I did do my second  Rock n Roll Half Marathon, my IT Bands weren’t strong enough to prevent the aching and the pain around my knees as I ran this race. 

This year, I have been, hopefully, preparing myself much better. I have been doing a lot of core work as well as strengthing my leg muscles especially around my knees. But as our training runs got longer,  I started to have foot problems and IT Band issues again.

Since I didn’t want a repeat of a stress fractured on my sesamoid bone, I made a quick visit to the podiatrist for some x-rays. No re-fracture but I had badly bruised that bone. A cortisone shot was given to relieve the pain as well as some adjustments to my orthotics. I was also told my running shoes were the wrong ones for my feet. 

My new shoes and adjusted orthotics

After a few weeks of running with my new shoes, a couple more adjustments to my orthotics, and several hours with ice bags on my knees and feet, these last training runs are becoming more and more pain free. 

June 25th is fast approaching. I plan to enjoy my third Rock n Roll Half Marathon–pain free and more important, injury-free!