The race that stopped me....but only for 12 weeks!

After the half marathon I was sorta addicted to running!  I decided to sign up for a local fundraiser 5K even though my shins had been bothering me.  Worse decision ever!  Took 1000mg of Motrin the morning of the race and went for it.  3.1 miles of hell!  I ran the first mile pretty fast then limped for the last 2.1.  I got to the finish line and sat down and then couldn't get back up.  I had to have someone bring me ice to stuff in my compression socks and then Melanie had to drive the van up to where I was sitting so someone could carry me to it.  Went to the ER, turned out I had a 4 inch diagonal stress fracture to my right tibia, right under the knee.  I was sentenced to 12 weeks of no impact and spent the first few weeks on crutches.  This came at a really bad time as we were getting ready to PCS from Kansas to Maryland and I had to get the house ready for the packers to come.  It was difficult to do anything with crutches so I took to rolling around in an office chair to get things done.  Never did master the stairs with the crutches though, had to crawl up and hop on one foot down.  At this point I was still trying to lose weight and not being able to run wasn't going to help so I set out to find other means of exercise.  I started doing some hard core spin classes and weight training and carried on!  I spent the entire summer doing no impact activities but longed to run.  I had no idea what would happen at the end of my recovery period.  I did my physical therapy and continued my no impact workouts for the entire summer.

Melanie and I

Still happy before the race!

Ice packed shin

Literally limping across the finish line

Final results

First mile was my fastest ever, then I broke my shin!

This picture is of me when I realized I had a stress fracture.  My friends told me to delete it, it was pathetic.  I didn't delete it for one reason, it is a constant reminder of a bad decision I made.  Whenever I push myself too far I look at this and decide to listen to my body!