Monday, January 10, 2011

Cliff's Edge

I am severely under-trained for this marathon, never have I felt so ill-prepared for a race. My new running prosthesis has been sent overnight to ProCare for some adjustments as my Sunday 10 miler morphed into a sad 8 miler. I knew we would be pushing the envelope to get a completely new running prosthesis ready to go in a little over a week, but it was my fault for waiting so long to make this change. The guys at ProCare can work magic given a reasonable schedule and I feel certain as adjustments are made things will get much better; the reason I know this is because I have talked to other athletes and have seen what they can do.

Current back of knee injury
With a good fitting prosthesis this race would be very difficult; with a problematic one it will be awful. No doubt if this was a weekend 5k I would blow if off until later, but this my goal race and one I felt I had given myself an abundance of time to train for. That is true; I factored in around 4 weeks of downtime. Turned out to be at least twice that much of lost training, the inability to do key long runs and speed work that could spell failure on race day.

I fear this race, but more than that, I fear not doing it more. I am ready to accept what I must, but I must run as far as I can go.

I will be on the starting line for the Charleston Marathon this Saturday. I am running to help cure FOP in honor of our friend Ashley Kurpiel. Ashley will be at the finish line with her parents, and that is why I must finish this journey.

You can help here.

Thanks to everyone who have already helped and supported this effort. You are my friends. You are the heroes who will help beat FOP.

4 comments:

  1. I am rooting for you, Richard! I have faith in you because you are committed and dedicated. My thoughts are with you as you run to that finish line this weekend.

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  2. I am putting these words into the reserve tank, Maria. Gonna need every ounce I think.

    Thank you for the encouragement!

    - Richard

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  3. I have no doubt that you are going to RLH to the finish line. I'll be thinking of you this weekend.

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  4. Gosh jaydee, I think it is going to be RLHelp on Saturday. :-)

    Thanks and hope it is not forever before we see you at a race again.

    - Richard

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