Buffalo Run 2010

After my failed attempt to run last weekend, I switched to a DNS on the Buffalo Run this year and switched over to being a volunteer. I figured it would help me with my disappointment and depression over missing another race after all the times that occurred last year.

I worked for a few hours on Saturday morning and then headed up to the race. As I was driving I started getting a little melanocholy thinking that it was one year ago that I DNF'd on the race course and remembering how that broke my heart at the time.

I ended up out on Antelope Island around 2 p.m. because they said they would need more volunteers near the end. After visiting for a few minutes, I started trying to find ways to help out. The finish area was running out of water and the White Rock Bay aid station was closing down, so I hiked over there (only a few hundred yards) and shouldered one of the full water jugs and hobbled back with it to the finish area. It was pretty funny, here I was congratulating runners on finishing their incredible efforts and yet a lot of them were worried about me walking around in a boot. By the time I had taken three trips back with water, I was pretty soaked. Then I taught the aid station how strong sports drink was supposed to be. They were watering it down so much nobody wanted to drink it.

I then noticed that the 50K runners were having to walk back uphill to the White Rock Aid station to get their drop bags, so started several trips that the volunteers then joined in with me on and carted back all the bags. The last trip back a couple of runners came up and took all the stuff from me. They said they were tired of feeling guilty about me hobbling around in a cast.

Lots of runners to visit with around the finish area. I talked with Celeste Collman for a while and also Twinkies (Matt) and Jun (Craig) from the FRB. I also met Steve P from the blog for the first time. Matt was looking great for having finished a 50 miler. I saw Celeste shivering in a chair at the finish line while waiting for her brother and went and got my blanket for her. She was excited to have it since she had lent her blanket to someone else.

While taking a break for a minute, I heard someone say, "Maurine, what did you do to your leg?" I looked down and there was a cute runner huddled in a chair by me. I knew who she was, but couldn't put it together. It was Erika from the FRB (Josse's sister). We visited for a little bit and then I realized the woman sitting next to her in an awesome green hat was her mother, Karen, who I met at the RHPC half marathon last summer. We visited off and on as I passed them for the next half hour or so.

Jim Skaggs, the Race Director, sent me off in his wife's BIG TRUCK at that point to see if there were items to pick up at the Lower Frary Peak and Ranch aid stations. That is one honking big truck to climb in and out of. After that, Karen Skaggs mentioned that maybe I could start taking garbage to the dumpsters. The previous year there had been three dumpsters in the next parking lot. I loaded up the inside of my jeep with smelly, oozy disgusting bags and set off. Found there was only one dumpster and it was already full, but I was able to get a couple of trips worth on top. Then we loaded boxes (a lot less disgusting) and I found another dumpster at the old race start and did several trips there until it was full. At that point I said I wasn't putting any more of the leaky bags in my jeep since it already was gross and smelled like rotten milk.

During some of these trips I was able to see Dave Crockett finish the first 100 miler on the island. He had started at 6 p.m. the night before and ran the 50 mile course twice. Very impressive!

As things started closing down we started gathering up empty canisters and such. I was put on emptying water jug detail, another garbage run in the BIG TRUCK across the island to Bridger Bay, and taking down the tents. By then we were all tired and cold and the poles were freezing! There were only about 8 people left and we were rushing to beat darkness to get the tents disassembled and finish loading the trucks.

I was sent home with two big bags of Buffalo stew and my car smelled gross the entire way home. It was the first time I left the island after dark. I stopped at a McDonalds to grab dinner and went into the bathroom to scrub my hands after all those hours of carting trash and to clean up all the scrapes and cuts so that I wouldn't get infected. I got home around 10 p.m. and still had to scrub out the car, hose down my shoe and cast/boot and then hose down myself.

Although I didn't do an official workout, every inch of me hurts today and I will estimate I probably walked 3 or more miles on various tasks.

Living with a grown child

My son moved into the townhouse yesterday while I was at work. He was very proud of himself and showed me how he had rearranged the room and organized everything and it was spotless. (Gotta admit it looked real good). I was kind of wondering what happened to my son in the nearly two years since he had graduated from high school. Had he been taken over by aliens?

I came back home again about four hours later. My son's room was still spotless. But there were dishes in the sink, stuff piled all over the kitchen table, and laundry throughout the living room and kitchen. I'm no longer worried about aliens.

Going through withdrawals

I wish I was posting more adventures in running, but I haven't really had any lately.

As I mentioned previously, I injured my right ankle back in November. Started having a burning sensation in the back of my ankle, but not on the bottom of my foot. I took a week or so off of running, and it started feeling a little better, so gradually eased back into running. In December I went and saw a Sports Medicine Specialist who told me that my Achilles tendon insertion was inflamed, so to stretch, ice, and put on a topical anti-inflammatory. He also said I could keep running on it as long as I took it easy.

By January I was only running 3 or 4 days a week. Once the ankle warmed up, I could run with no problems, but the first few miles were pretty painful. Come February, I would have to force myself to run and every time I got up after sitting a while, I would limp for about 10 minutes until the pain eased and the ankle loosened up. While running in Georgia, I started thinking that maybe it wasn't the Achilles after all and that maybe I should see a podiatrist or someone else about the foot.

Two weeks ago, I got an appointment with a podiatrist. This doctor did some xrays and a lot of manipulation of my foot and as he was feeling for sore areas in the Achilles, he happened to brush his hand along the inner ankle bone and I about shot through the ceiling. After more tests, the doctor decided that my posterior tibialis tendon was inflamed. Because of the number of months I had been injured and the pain I was in, the doctor decided to put me in a knee high boot to try and let the ankle heal. He also said that I actually needed to be on anti-inflammatories to let the inflammation go down.

Two weeks later, I have worn the boot except when bathing and sleeping. The pain is gradually subsiding and I am now finding that as the 'burning' in the ankle goes away I can pinpoint the pain better. I think the anterior tibialis tendon on the outside of the ankle is also inflamed because that area is now more painful.

I was also given a brace that would support my arch and told to try running after two weeks. I wore that yesterday and was surprised how much my calf muscle has deteriorated in just two weeks. After less than two miles of alternating running and walking, I have decided that I will have to miss the Buffalo Run next weekend for the first time since it started.