Birthday Wishes

So this year, the marathon I chose to train for is on my birthday -- April 24. My parents, little sister, boyfriend and a handful of other favorite people of mine are all schlepping down to Nashville for the Country Music marathon so some of us can run 26.2 miles (and I will celebrate all of my 32 years).

However, I've had problem after problem this year. Bad shoulder. Wonky toes. Super sharp plantar fasciitis. And now I have yet another eerily familiar woe -- the dreaded posterior shin splints. My right leg's calf is soooo sore on one little spot specifically on the inside of that leg. Been there -- done that. In 2007 I had a sore posterior shin on that same right leg the month or two before the Marine Corps Marathon. I completed... in a lot of pain and with a handful of advils. And within three days afterwards, I couldn't put any weight on it at all and I learned I had a stress fracture in my tibia. Cut to 6-7 weeks of wearing an evil boot and having to go to the world's creepiest and flirtiest sports orthopedist. Bad news.

So I'm paranoid that this is what I may have again... I sit here with ice on my stupid calf and worry that I'll have to spend my birthday tortured as I watch all my loved ones run the race that I was supposed to be in. That could be a REALLY crappy birthday. I know I'm insane to want to run a full marathon on the one day of the year that is all about me... but the actual race day is the only reason I dare run in the first place. I hate running coincidentally... but the glory of the finish line always give me amnesia to the hard work and exhaustion of training. So I'm saying my prayers and hopefully this Cobra kicks in so I have health insurance (they say it will be retroactive but I don't trust it). I have 67 days to try to get back on this bandwagon that I can't seem to stay on for even a solid week. Here's hoping!