Down to the Wire

This past weekend Jennifer did the Take Flight sprint triathlon in Huntersville, NC, along with several Getting2Tri Athletes, including Deanna Babcock, Janie Wiltshire, and Mike Lenhart, who is the founder of president of the extraordinary organization. Cadie Jessup was temporarily sidelined but acted as a handler and enthusiastic supporter of the other athletes. Also friends and families participated with these athletes, making for a sizeable G2T contingent.

Jennifer out of transition and onto the run!

As you may know by now, I am not a triathlete, I am a simple man who simply runs. I like to swim on an annual basis and bike a little more often, though not so much without a bike leg. Jennifer has done all the distances up to the half IM, so she is the TriStar in our household. "Swims Like Fish" is my nickname for her because she is lovely to watch in the water, almost hard to believe a human can be so graceful in that element. Jennifer finished 2nd in her AG at this race and I was very proud to be on her team!

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The afternoon before her tri I ran 4 miles on the treadmill in the small hotel workout room. I have learned to check my residual limb often for the start of any problems, and noticed that evening that I had a nasty spot behind my knee, undoubtedly caused by the test socket as it is higher there and not as rounded at the trim line. I really hadn't noticed any problem while running which was unusual. The affected skin area was like a blister, only, and there is no nice way to say this, leaking pus. Ugh. I cleaned it up and put a large band-aid over it, hoping to protect the skin from further irritation.

I had hoped to do my long run when we returned home after the tri, but it was too late. I had had a bad headache so along with the skin concern and listening to my body, I decided to put it off. On Tuesday I ran 13 miles and on Friday I did 9 miles with 4 x 1.5 miles at threshold pace. This Sunday I will do 14 miles that includes 4 x 1200 and 2 finishing miles, both at threshold pace. If I can protect my behind-the-knee skin for this run I should have my first 50 mile week in the amputee running book.

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Kids on track from a previous workout

I am still having issues at the track related to the adjacent school being allowed to use it as a recreational facility. At the end of my workout on Friday a rock was thrown at me. I have a call into the recreation director to discuss this again...the teachers make it clear to the kids to stay out of the runners way, yet they still walk in front of me getting to the infield and being distracted by horseplay. I believe I should be allowed to use the track as a track, this is a million dollar facility that always takes a backseat to other needs than what it is. Sad.

This is the rock that was thrown at me

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The reason this post is entitled "Down to the Wire" is that I have 10 weeks of marathon training and then the 2 week taper. Since I am behind in my training and not certain if the problem with the socket is solved, I am in a zone of uncertainty. My intent was not just to finish this marathon, but to run it at the best of my current ability. Realistically, just finishing is now the minimal goal. My training is going well except for the lack of long runs, but that is one large exception.

I will get there from here, albeit a little slower. Jato is twitching to run free.