Yesterday at work a friend of mine gave me an attitude adjustment piece of advice, and coming from her situation, i really took it to heart.
Tracy is known at work as Tracy the Runner. She runs, or used to run, circles around all of us. Miles and marathons.
Well last year she was in a car accident, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, completely not her fault. But none the less, she was the one injured. Her knee was so damaged she had to have 2 surgeries to repair it. But now it doesn't bend. She takes steroids for the pain, and needs a 3rd surgery, and then she feels she will be able to use it effectively again.

Well at work yesterday i was rubbing my lower back where my sciatic pain starts and Tracy came up and asked if my back was still bothering me. I answered yes, every step i take, and at night it hurts to lay down, front or side or back, and when i roll over the pain wakes me up.
So i said, let me ask you something, if you were in the middle of your scheduled training for your first marathon, 7 weeks having gone by with very little running, and 13 to go, and your goal was to do run/walk intervals, but now you have hardly ran at all and are more than likely going to have to walk the whole thing if you even do it.
What would you do?
Tracy said - "you are like me, i was so frustrated the other day, i just started crying to my husband about how i can't exercise and how fat i am and how it's depressing me. He replied to me, well you can't run but you can do weights and upper body stuff. Michelle, you want to do the whole picture, or nothing. And that isn't getting you to what you want. If it was me, I would change my goal. I would focus on that finish line. That is where you want to be. And if you have to walk to get there, then accept that is where you are now. That is what you can do, and do it."
So i really took this advice to heart, because i can (probably, well in 13 weeks) walk this, and maybe throw in a couple minutes each mile of some slow running, and get to the finish line. That is where i am right now, and i should not throw away this opportunity. i had to register for and run 2 races in St George to get my spot in this marathon. Over 10,000 people are turned away each year in the lottery. Only 7,500 runners are given spots, and this year i am one of those.

So thanks to Tracy, a woman who right now would love to be able to walk 26.2 miles, I am back on the horse.
Today - on schedule - i did 7.7 miles at a 15:00 pace. Running 30 - 60 seconds and then walking 2 - 3 minute recovery intervals in between.
I also think the 1/2 marathon i have signed up for in 3 weeks, has thrown me off  my path.
This 1/2 has a cut off time, i mentioned before. You have to be out of the canyon by 1 hour and 45 minutes, this is the 7.5 mile, and that is a 14 minute pace. When i signed up, i knew i could easily make that cutoff because it is 7.5 miles down hill, down a beautiful canyon! But not now. Today i realized, running downhill makes my leg hurt worse. And i do not think i can maintain a  14 min pace. Next week i will give it another try and see if my leg is better, after my knee gets a cortisone shot tomorrow. But there are still more areas of my leg that protest, my hamstring being my biggest concern.

The St George marathon does have a cut off this year. You must be out of that canyon by 1:00 pm, which is a 6 hour time frame. This cutoff mileage is at mile 23.1, they say a 16 min pace. Since it is the first time they are enforcing a cutoff, they are actually having a pacer for this slowest allowed time.

Anyway, I am off and wogging again!!