notwithstanding the handful of miles after midnight at umstead on sunday, it's now been 3 days without running, and today will make 4. i spent most of sunday in bed with my leg wrapped in ice and elevated on pillows. that worked well until it was time to head to the airport for the trip home. all that travel time on my feet was a minor recovery setback. by the time we arrived home sunday night, the swelling in my leg had returned to it's original intensity.
on monday i went to the doctor. his immediate concern - since no bones were broken - was to get the swelling down. he instructed me to keep the leg elevated as much as possible. if the swelling didn't go down in a couple of days - or if my foot suddenly started to swell - he would an ultrasound to pinpoint the problem.
i didn't mind staying home on monday because it gave me a chance to go through the stack on newspapers, magazines, and mail that had piled up since friday. i also wrote up my race report, posted it - along with some photos - and enjoyed reading everyone else's reports on the race. in addition, i squeezed in a couple of non-race related posts on ratdog at the beacon, "the greatest game" book follow-up, and the william f. buckley, jr., memorial service.
even with the umstead and non-running posts, it still seemed a lot happened over the last few days. to mention just a few: the martin scorese rolling stones movie, "shine a light" opened on friday (which i'd like see), charlton heston died this weekend, and a suicide bomber killed 14 people at the start of a marathon in sri lanka. on monday the news reported that bob dylan was awarded an honorary pulitzer prize. so much news, so little time.
on tuesday, to give my leg more rest, i worked from home. the swelling had gone down noticeably, so there was no need for the ultrasound. but while not as swollen, the leg was still bruised and tender. i still harbored hopes of walking the "thomas labrecque classic" 4 miler in central park this weekend - but the better plan was to volunteer there instead. since i had to run 9 races and volunteer at 1, the switch would take care of the latter.
so on sunday morning, instead of running the race, i'll be a course marshall on the north west portion of the course (probably on west drive in the 90's). that was the easy decision. the tougher one comes next week, when i have to decide whether or not running the boston marathon is feasible.
7 comments:
Stay off your feet. Why not wait to get in the NYRR volunteer requirement - you have time ?
Will you be icing your leg at the beer fest on Sunday ?
you have to volunteer anyway, and this is a points race so it'll be popular and they'll need help....I wish you could come to Bear mtn and see anthony in all his glory!! but tramping around would make you much worse:( I have the Mahopac info --sponsor info -for sunday:)
anthony, i can only sit still and rest for so long before i go stir crazy!
i thought the switch from running to volunteering was a pretty good compromise. that way i could burn some calories in a less stressful way - and drink an extra beer that afternoon :D
Hi Frank,
Tomas has such nice things to say about you that I thought I'd come by and look. I have been here before and thought it was interesting, and I enjoy commenting, but I dislike comment moderation (too much like censorship) so I don't frequent those blogs that have it. This blog certainly feels like home to me--I recognize all the stuff that's important to you! Good luck in your running.
Wow... that is really intense... didn't realize feet would get so swollen after long races like that... Kind of makes it even more appealing :)
Being qualified for the Boston marathon is incredibly cool... can only imagine how hard it might be to skip it, as most people dream of getting in... but I guess the state of the feet will have to be the decision maker. No point in damaging something.
thanks for visiting peter! i'll be stopping by your blog often as well!
tomas, thanks for saying those wonderful things. if it's possible to make a jaded old man like me blush - you did a good job of it :)
the recovery is coming along. will know by next week if the trip to boston will work out. right now i'm still positive that it will - but, then again, i'm optimist.
Good luck with the swelling feet. Hope Boston works out.
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