One Year Ago...

I broke my hand running.....and the embarassing part is that it wasn't even icy outside. One second I was running, the next second I was laying on the sidewalk. Luckily, there wasn't much traffic out since it was early in the morning so I don't think anyone saw me. I was only about a mile into my 10 mile run when I fell and at first, I didn't think anything was wrong so I kept running another few miles when I noticed my hand was throbbing and swelling and was getting worse. I ran back to Todd's house and immediately said we needed to go to the ER. And this is what I ended up with....

The huge splint for my broken hand

Needless to say, training for Boston last year was a little bit more difficult. I had this big splint, which, let me tell you, was not light. It was heavy and I hated every second of having it on. I could only run 3 or 4 mi with it on because it would get so hot & sweaty and was so dang heavy. I even had to skip my long run that week because of it. The good news was that I went to the doctor after a week and was given a much smaller splint.

My hand one week after I fell.......and Todd was probably yelling at me during this picture for taking my splint off


My much smaller splint

I had to wear the smaller splint for another 3 weeks. So in total, I had a splint on my arm/hand for a month. Of course, it just happened to be right in the thick of my Boston training so I had to do 2 of my 20 mi runs with this stupid splint. I was ecstatic though that I wasn't going to have to run Boston with it. On a side note, my training partners found it hilarious when I couldn't wear a glove on my hand so I had a sock on it to keep my fingers warm.

So now when I'm complaining about how cold it is outside to run, I can just think about how it isn't as bad as having to run with a broken hand.

I did get in a run this morning on the treadmill but I'm a little disappointed in myself. I had planned on doing 10 mi which meant I had to get up at 4:30am. Well, my alarm went off and I was still pretty tired....6.5 hours of sleep doesn't quite cut it after a few days. I ended up getting up at 5:00am instead so my plans of doing 10 mi went out the window since I wouldn't have enough time before going to work. Mentally, I don't think I could've done 10 mi anyways & my stomach wasn't feeling the greatest too. So all excuses aside, I ended up doing 6 mi w/ 1 mi warm up, 4 mi tempo @ 7:31 pace, and 1 mi cool down. I was happy with my tempo pace because it was 4 mi with no rest or easy jogging but disappointed I didn't do 10 mi. I know it isn't that big of a deal but I hate wussing out & now my weekly mileage will be down a bit.