Branford Road Race: Crossing the Finish Line!

As most of you know, I ran my first 5 mile road race on Father's Day! It was quite an accomplishment for me and I am sure you understand if you read last weeks post regarding my running pains. So I will get to the race in just a minute, but  I really want to start with how I was able to do it. Over the past couple of weeks I was experiencing significant pain around my ankles in both feet while running. This made training extremely difficult and some days I just could not continue with my run. It actually started to affect my daily life and just walking around when I was not exercising. Of course this really upset me and it made me concerned about  my up coming races.

The night before my race, I was going back and further on whether or not I wanted to participate in the race. I felt it was probably in my best interest to rest and heal my ankles, but I also felt like there was something else going on. I started to really analyze exactly when the pain started happening and if I had changed anything in my routine.

Then it hit me!

I remembered that I started to feel pain about 2 weeks ago and at about the same time I had purchased some new socks. I know what you are thinking. This whole thing came down to socks? What made me think that it could be my new socks went back to my skating days. When I was skating, I could never skate with regular socks; I needed to have thin nylons or skating tights. I used that same methodology with running.

I woke up Sunday and I tried my shoes on with my new socks and then with my old socks. I felt a significant difference. The old socks are thinner and I felt like my feet could breathe and move better. I knew after that I wanted to run the race!

I ran the entire road race without stopping once! Of course, with the difficulty in training, I was not able to make the time I wanted to, but I was extremely happy with running the entire thing.

I finished in 1:01:40. There were over 3000 participants and it was a great event to be a part of. I am so glad I was able to tackle my challenged and run the race! Now onto the next one!!

I also suggest you check out this Article. This woman overcame extreme adversity to participate. Her story is inspiring!

Have a great week everyone!!