Almost next year

I just realized my poor blog is in serious need of updating, but that's not happening right now. This is just catching up. I realized I never posted since I had my foot sliced.

When I went to have the stitches removed the doc told me it turns out that I didn't have a ganglion cyst; I didn't have a cyst at all. I had what the lab called "fibromatosis." Which led to my delight in saying I had fibromatosis on my toesis. It's the little things in life. Anyway, a fibroma is a little benign tumor. Although they are common on feet, they're common on the bottom of the foot, not the top. Usually they're in/on the plantar fascia, not the big toe tendon. My doc told me the chances for it reoccurring are low. Ish.

Since the incision wasn't totally healed he told me I could run when there was no stinging when I swiped the wound with an alcohol wipe. And no cheating or toughing it out, stinging is stinging. As of today, 4 days later than expected, there was no stinging. So I'm good to start running again, yay!

My toeitis on the other foot isn't gone, but it never hurt horribly until I was at about 8 miles so I won't know for a while how healed it is.

I'll have 2 whole weeks to run and then will need to take another short interruption. I had a couple of moles sliced off the same day as the foot surgery (along with freezing a shitload of other moles and freckle-type-things, ouchy). One mole had benign atypical cells, so more has to be removed. It's located high on my thigh, right over the hip flexor. That's going to be a tough one to work around because it's one of the hardest workers in my body.

But when that's healed, I'm back to running. No matter what. I can feel my mood souring from lack of endurance endorphins and lack of sun. Since I can't control the weather I need to get back on the trails, or at least the treadmill.

Have you been running? Can you control the weather? Do you have any good toe jokes?

Tis the (Off) Season: Holey Monday

I did TOO spell that correctly. No religiousness or faith involved here, just a scalpel and 5 stitches.

Back in the fall I developed, almost overnight, a big cyst on the top of my right foot. The doc thought it was probably a ganglion cyst and since he's the doc, I figured that was a good enough diagnosis for me. We tried draining it twice and that didn't make any difference. Since excision would involve a few weeks of no running I decided to wait until December to do anything about it. I haven't another paid race on the schedule until the end of January so technically this is my off season.

By this morning the cyst was greatly reduced in size but hadn't disappeared. After considering all the options (one of which was totally ignoring it for the rest of my life) the doc and I decided to go ahead and remove it. The worst part was him sticking a big ass needle in the top of my foot to give me the local anesthesia; he kept saying I was used to more pain than that from running marathons. He had a point (heh heh), but it still hurt oodles.

I'm a big medical weenie. I can have medical things done to me with no problem at all, I just can't watch any of it. From my allergy shots (which I've been getting on and off for 40 years) to major surgery, I'm fine as long as I don't see it. But today I decided what the hell, I'd watch until I felt like puking or fainting. And just to amuse myself, I'd take pictures.

The picture taking amused my doc too. And no, I'm not posting a single one here. Ew. Yuckyuckyucky. I was able to watch most of it although several times I averted my eyes. But I saw him cut open my foot and snippety snip the cyst, saw him squeeze out anything else, saw him sew it up. And it was completely gross, lemme tell ya. And I have pictures to prove it.

So now my foot is all wrapped up in bandages and it's supposed to stay that way for 2 weeks. Yeah, no washing or changing the bandages or anything. I asked him what happens when my feet sweat and get gross and he said they've done this lots of times and don't worry about it. Most importantly, no running or weight bearing exercises for at least 2 weeks. The doc said I could get some good upper body workouts in, even ride an exercycle if it feels ok, but no walking or running. It will even impact some of my TRX workouts because of foot positioning. I have the cutest little orthopedic shoe to wear for 2 weeks.

I asked the doc if I could run a half marathon at the new year and he said no, the skin would be too new and could possibly split. I didn't even bother asking if I could run back-to-back half marathons on 12/31 and 1/1. Sigh. Sounded like a fun way to ring out the old, ring in the new.

The best thing about this is it'll give my toeitis on the left foot another 2 weeks to heal. It's improved but not gone, and I don't particularly want to schedule marathons without knowing how much pain will be involved (the best amount, of course, is "none"). I feel odd not having a marathon to plan for, to train for, to obsess over. I know which ones I'd like to run in 2012 but I'm holding myself back right now.

After work today I'm having some moles removed. Although my skin doc thinks they're all fine and dandy and benign, they look iffy to me and so I asked her to cut them off today. Hell, I can't run anyway so I may as well get everything done, right? It's been 2 years since my diagnosis and treatment and these will be the biggest batch of moles being removed since then.

Something tells me this will be an advil and alcohol evening.

Have you had anything removed from your feet? Do you have any suggestions for marathons in 2012? Is this your off season or are you in deep training?

Mount Desert Island Marathon Race Report

I loved the Mount Desert Island Marathon. I also disliked the Mount Desert Island Marathon, but simply because I wasn't in prime shape to run a race that had a vertical gain of 17 billion feet (that may be a slight exaggeration). I wasn't even in prime shape to run a race that was dead flat and there was little enough of that.

I don't often go into marathons thinking that this will be my very first DNF. For 4 weeks following the Fox Cities Marathon I had no confidence that I could finish this one. My plantar plate didn't magically heal itself, my cyst didn't magically disappear. Also, between the races I gained a few pounds and my asthma acted up. Almost as if my brain was trying to give my body a reason to sit down in the middle of the race and quit. Well, I ignored that and soldiered on.

Saturday morning there was an optional free fun run (with a $10 breakfast afterward, should you chose to stay). We decided Friday night that we'd all walk this, just to get our legs freshened up from the traveling the day before. Sis, Tracy and I met Sandy downtown at the start. The race club handed out special bib numbers for all the runners and after a few words, we were off! Or rather, they were off and we started walking. Everyone else was running and out of sight within minutes. The route was less than 2 miles, to the Atlantic Oceanside (where the expo was being held). It was a lovely morning for a walk and it was very nice to spend time with Sandy.

We hung around at the hotel so we could go to the expo when it opened. There was more than we were expecting. Packet pick-up went very quickly. The race shirt was a green quarter-zip wind shirt with the race logo on the front. This was a nice change from a typical tech or cotton tee. The expo also had a few booths selling merchandise, including one that had everything -- and I do mean everything -- that you could need to pick up for last minute race prep.


MDI offers an early start option for walkers and slow runners who think they'll take over 6 hours. Since all of my marathons this year have been 6+, I opted for that one extra hour. So did oodles of other people. There were well over 100 of us out there waiting for the sunrise and the gun. Being back-of-the-packers we all kept moving -- well, back. Nobody wanted to stand on the line. We're used to letting the quicker people go ahead of us. Yes, most of us would rather not have people jostling us aside because we're in their way. The race director finally said "This is YOUR START" before any of us moved forward. Since this seemed like my only chance, I stood right at that start line.

You go first. No, you go first. No, I insist. You go first.

The gun went off, and so did we. Relatively slowly, but still. I'm proud to say I led that race. For at least 3 minutes I was the leader on the road. Then someone running about an 11:30 mile passed me. My time in the sun was over (figuratively; it was overcast). Also, that's when the first hill started and I slowed down.

My plan, such as it was, was to run as much as I could since running hurt my foot less than walking. But I also knew that my asthma wasn't going to let me run many of the uphills. I intended to run the flats (I don't think there were any flats), the downhills (there were a couple throughout the day) and the slight inclines, then walk the steeper hills. That actually worked well for a while.

In the early miles there was a lot of fighting for a good position. Yup, I made that up. We were a friendly crew out there, most of us doing some form of run/walk. We had a lot of space, even though we really were just on the wide shoulder of the road. I started running with a woman who was doing her first marathon and we stayed together for over an hour. Then I started dragging while she was obviously holding back for me so I sent her on. (I did see her much later in the race, walking, completely over the whole idea of running a marathon. I saw her again at the end and was so glad I had a little teensy part in helping her finish her first marathon.)


The weather was great, except for the very strong head-wind. It was cool-ish, overcast with short periods of sun. But that cold wind off the water, smack in the face, made running up all those bazillion hills even harder. Luckily the spectacular scenery more than made up for any wind and hills. Otherwise I do think I would have just sat down and pouted for a few hours until someone came to get me.

Seriously, the sheer beauty of the Bar Harbor to Southwest Harbor route cannot be understated. To me, Big Sur International Marathon had all other races beat for scenery, but now I can say it has a rival. Despite my west coast bias I think the 2 races tie for utter beauty. I've seen the BSIM route several times, both during the races and in a car, and spent a lot of time on the MDI route (and drove it both before and after the race) and I think everyone who can should run both of these and make their own decision. I couldn't; I loved them both.


But back to the race. My foot started getting a hot spot very early on and I had seen in previous races that the hot spot turned into pain quickly. I made it to about mile 8 before it hurt and by the halfway point it really hurt. Running hurt, walking hurt more. With the wind in my face I couldn't run as much as I'd like so I just slogged on.

There were aid stations about every 2 or 2-1/2 miles. They were well staffed with very cheerful friendly volunteers, even during our early start. There was water and some sort of -ade and I'm pretty sure that later stations had fruit also. One station at about mile 17 had gu.


Because of the narrow roads and lack of alternative routes around the race, there weren't many spectators except at official spectator spots (there were about 8 of those). There wasn't much traffic until we got to mile 20-ish and then the road got very busy. We were really confined to the road shoulder then and the condition of those shoulders was poor. This was where the 5 hour runners were passing the 6 hour runners so it got crowded. Still, everyone remained polite. I love small races!


Miles 20-25 were uphill, some of it just a middling grade and some of it real hill. It was one road, going in one direction, and I tried to studiously stare at the scenery and ignore how craptastic I was feeling. I was walking as much as running at that point. Mile 25 is the "Top of the Hill" and supposedly it's all downhill from there. Uh, not quite. I'd say it was more downhill-ish, with a couple of uphill grades along the way. Also, the road got very narrow and crowded with all the earlier finishers driving away. For about a half mile we were confined to a sidewalk-path-thing; very narrow with broken asphalt and curbs. Since my agility had departed some 4 hours earlier I wasn't sure I'd make the last half mile without breaking something.

But make it I did, even beating 6:30. Barely. My dear sister and brother-in-law, along with Sandy and her husband, cheered for me as I attempted a finish line sprint. This was my slowest of all marathons but at least I wasn't sitting somewhere on the road by Somes Sound crying my eyes out. I got my medal and my space blanket and waited for my cheerleaders to find me. I was pooped and not about to go looking for them. I had given my all, what little "my all" entailed, and was glad it was behind me.


There was a tent with food for the finishers. Ice cream! Pumpkin and blueberry! Without spoons. I grabbed some of that and told my sis that if she could find a spoon I'd share with her. My very resourceful, ice cream loving sis did indeed find a spoon and I realized that ice cream wasn't what I wanted so I passed her the entire cup. I went back in the tent and saw there were bagels, some with cream cheese and some with peanut butter. I wanted a combination that wasn't pre-spread so the nice volunteer cut a fresh bagel and smeared it for me. There were also lots of little bags of chips (cheese doodles!), baskets of candy, an energy drink and I think other drinks. Somewhere I think there was a beer tent but I never went looking.

I had worn my Marathon Maniac short-sleeve shirt for the race and received many comments both during and after. Every Maniac who passed me (which was most of them) gave me a "good job, Maniac" or "looking good, Maniac." Many people asked about criteria for joining and I think this race probably added to our numbers. It was fun wearing a conversation starter. The weather was perfect for wearing a black shirt, shorts, calf sleeves and my buffs. I pulled the buff over my face a couple of times when the wind got high. I also had gloves which I took off after a couple of hours and tucked into my belt in case it got windy later. I was wearing a MM cap and was initially afraid that it would blow off in the wind. I managed to keep my head tucked during any gusts and it stayed on. Probably because for most of the race my sunglasses were up on my head too.

I'm glad I did this race. I wish I could say I ran this marathon but that's inaccurate; I ran part of this marathon and just pushed forward for the rest. It was a great experience and a wonderful vacation. Maybe I'll write about that next.

Have you ever been to Maine? Do you prefer the East Coast over the West Coast (or are you just happy to see any coast at all)? Have you ever run a race with 17 billion feet of vertical gain? Let me know!

It's a bear in a lobster suit! How cute is this??

If you run a race and don't write about it, does it count?

I did indeed run the Fox Cities Marathon in Wisconsin, followed by the Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon in San Jose. I will be writing about FCM where the race was wonderful and my performance was mediocre. I probably won't write about RnR-SJ again since it was almost the same as the previous years.

Right now I'm dealing with a couple of aggravations. In addition to the ganglion cyst which doesn't seem to want to disappear by itself, I have an injury to the plantar plate on the other foot. I can run for about 2 miles without anything hurting, then it gradually gets worse and worse. The cyst will be removed in December, between races. I'm waiting for ice baths and taping (and lots of wishing) to help heal the other problem. I won't be running until my next race while trying to keep my conditioning at the top.

Have any of you experienced plantar plate injuries? How about bible cysts? Tell me your stories!

Zombie Runner Vasona Lake Run Half Marathon

My 20 mile training run went well. For a long run it was -- long. The weather ended up being great; it never got too hot and the sun didn't even come out until my final hour. I ran the last 12 miles alone, greeting all the other runners, walkers and cyclist as they passed by. I ended up tired, with a sore foot but no other problems. I'm pretty certain that's why I asked Bree whether she'd be interested in running a half marathon on Labor Day Monday (... that, and the fact I thought she'd say no).

I thought that Bree would decide that 13 was more than her aggravated ankle wanted to run. If not that, she'd see the profile of this run and decide I was crazy. Imagine my surprise and delight when she wanted to run this! So early this morning I drove down to the South Bay and met up with Bree at her new apartment. We drove, along with another friend of hers, to Los Gatos Creek Park.

We picked up our bibs and shirts and goody bags. The women's shirts were a light purple tech shirt, sized properly (men's shirts were in green). The goody bags had a bunch of ginger chews, a gel and a Zombie Runner pen. We pinned on our numbers and waited for the start.

This is a small race, about 150 people for each of the 5 mile and half marathon races. Both started together down the Los Gatos Trail for the first out-and-back, where the 5 miles finished. We continued on for the hard part.

Somehow when I looked at the website I read that the surface was all asphalt. Notsomuch. When we got to the fire road I wasn't too surprised. I supposed that we'd be on the same fire road part that was run during the Jungle Run. Again, notsomuch. I apparently forgot the hilly part of the run too.

After a very short stretch of fire road we started climbing single track. Knowing that I'm (1) a klutz, (2) afraid of cliff-type edges, and (3) not used to dirt, we slowed down. Since this was an out-and-back route, the mountain goats other runners were coming back down the trail we were creeping up. We stepped aside as much as we could, knowing they were going way faster than we were. The trail continued on in an upward direction. Running had become walking was becoming mincing our way along the rocks and roots.

If we hadn't been out of water I think we would have just turned around and called it a day and a DNF. I knew there'd be water at the turnaround so we kept going. Then it became a downhill. A very, very steep downhill. We didn't run there either, since it was too incredibly rocky and steep. It was absolutely the worst part of the route, even though the route widened. The very scenic view of the Lexington Reservoir made it a little better.

We got to the bottom, refilled and started back up the hill. We had to stop and rest a couple of times - total dead stop while we caught our breaths. After that it was mostly downhill, back the way we came. Funny how in this direction we were running much more than the other direction. I was determined not to spend another 22 minutes on one mile. When we hit the single track we walked, the fire roads we ran/walked. After what seemed like forever we returned to the asphalt trail.

The whole time we were struggling up and down those hills, we saw families with small kids, cyclists, moms pushing strollers, going the same way. Maybe it was that they hadn't already run the first 7 miles, but they were making us look like slugs. Dirty, sweaty slugs.

The route was perfectly marked with some chalk arrows on the ground and pink or polka dotted ribbons hanging from everything that needed to be marked. I think I could have still gotten lost (I'm talented that way) but Bree set me right each time.

We finished the race, and both ended up NQL (not quite last, remember?). We were 152 and 153 of 158 and well within the cut-off time. We were cheered in, given our medals and directed to the fluids and food (pretty decimated by that time, but there were still watermelon slices, candy, chips and pretzels, other fruit and a couple of cookies).

Water stops were about every 2-1/2 miles and well stocked with water, some electrolyte drink, defizzed coke, candy, salty snacks and fruit. Since I had prepared for a 2:50-ish race and ended up with a 3:20 race, I ran out of gu and drink powder before I ran out of race. I grabbed a few gummy bears at the last couple of stops and sucked on them as we ran. The sugar gave me enough boost to keep going.

Taking another glance at the website it turns out the run was 68% asphalt, 20% fire road and 12% single track. It also says the gain was 945 feet. It doesn't say that all the elevation was in the 32% not asphalt.

I'm glad I ran this race. I don't think I was really properly prepared for that much not-road, nor were my legs really happy with 13 miles after last week's 20. My foot was again sore starting at about 2 miles. I probably won't become a trail runner any time soon, I enjoy asphalt too much. This race was very well done, especially considering how small it is. I don't think it would work as well if the single track got more crowded so this was the perfect size.

Oh, and the weather again was close to perfect. It was forecast earlier in the week to be hot by 10 am, but it never got close to 70 degrees while we were out there. Even when the sun came out we were running through at least intermittent shade so it didn't get too hot. So we had great scenery, I had good company on the run (thanks, Bree!), the shirt and medals were nice, the course support was great. I recommend this run.

Now I recommend going to bed.

And then he stuck a big needle in it

I've ramped up my mileage in training for my upcoming marathons. This cycle I've run quite a few 15-16 milers and a couple of 18 milers hoping not to hit a wall at 20. We'll see tomorrow, when I run said 20. Since this could be my first hot run of the summer (and how did that happen??) I'll have a good measure of where my fitness is for Fox Cities Marathon.

I'm gratified and confused that an August 27th run is the first hot run of the year. Normally that happens in March or April. While we've had a couple of spells of a few days of heat, none have been on long-run scheduled weekends (or indeed, on weekends at all). I'm not particularly looking forward to sweltering but since September in Wisconsin could be hot (and hey, these days October in Maine could be hot) I'd like to get a long hot run under my belt.

Not under my shoes though. A couple of weeks ago I noticed a lump on top of my foot after a run. I figured my shoes must have been too tight and didn't worry about it. Then I noticed that it got worse for a while, then better, then worse. Then I realized that it wasn't really changing at all, it was just big. Wiser minds than I determined that I should go see our friendly neighborhood sports podiatrist so I made an appointment. Imagine my disappointment when the lump didn't go away, even after making an appointment. Since the only time the lump causes pain is when I wear shoes, and because I'm wearing sandals unless I'm running or at the gym, it was mostly a curiosity rather than an impairment. Unless, of course, I was running.

So I went to see the doc today. After poking, prodding and an ultrasound he said it was probably a ganglion cyst and we could drain it and hope it would go away. Okey dokey, draining sounded good to me. In theory. In practice he took a needle the size of the Space Needle with a syringe the size of a large silo and started poking around inside the cyst, guided by ultrasound. He dragged the tip of that needle up and down inside the cyst and urgh, TMI at this point. Anydoodle, there wasn't any fluid being extracted so he pulled out the needle and just started to squeeeeeeze the cyst. That sounds much more painful that it actually was, the squeezing didn't hurt at all (probably because my foot was so relieved to not have the needle in it). Not much came out then either.

The hope is that it'll drain and flatten over the next 5-7 days, go away, and never bother me again. That's unlikely to happen. He said he wouldn't want to drain it more than a couple of times, and if it reoccurs would recommend removing it just to see what it is. That would involve a little incision, a couple of stitches. No big deal, right? Wrong, it would involve no running for 3 weeks. Yikes! I have too many races to take 3 weeks off! I'm going to believe in fairy tales and believe that the cyst will go away. Quickly and without any worry from me. Right?

For my long run tomorrow I'll just use some felt to cushion the cyst area from my shoe and everything should be fine. I'm very much looking forward to this run, sore foot and high heat notwithstanding. Every long run is a challenge, every long run proves once again that although I might not look like it, I am in fact a runner.

Have any of you had ganglion cysts? Anyone had it flattened by the family bible? Anyone grossed out by hearing about this?

Hey, look behind you! It's July!

I've misplaced a month, have any of you seen it? Two months, or even three. One minute I'm enjoying April and the next I realize I'm dating things "August." Zip zip zip and summer is gone without even starting.

Yes, I'm going to first whine about the lack of summer weather around these here parts. While the rest of the country is baking, sweltering, melting under the heat of a hundred hot boiling flames, we've been dressing in jeans and sweatshirts. We don' need no steenkin' sandals here! Nobody has to worry about their summer wardrobe fitting because they have to cover it up under a couple of warmer layers. Yoohoo, summer? Over here! I'm waiting for you!

I'll probably pay for that plea later in the month when I go to run 18-20 miles and it's 97 polluted sunny degrees instead of the 57 we've been running in. Fine! Bring it!

During the past month I upped my trainer workouts to thrice weekly. Probably just so I'd have a chance to say "thrice." Mondays at 7am, Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6am. We're still doing a lot of TRX which I'm still enjoying. Today I set the goal of a set of real, non-girly pushups by summer's end. I can almost, sorta do 1 sloppy real push-up now. I can do 3 sets of nice looking, good form girly pushups. Katie reminded me that it's August and summer is almost over. Nuh uh, can't prove it by me. Pushups by summer's end. And apparently I'll decide by then whether or not to hyphenate "push-up."

For the most part Bree and I have continued running, or run-walking, once a week around Lake Chabot. A little over-doing it impacted a knee on each of us and we decided that bombing hills wasn't the smartest idea when our training schedules have us running long on the weekend. We're taking it easier there but finding that hill work definitely has it's benefits (strength and endurance) to go with it's negatives (swollen painful knees). The Lake has been lovely to run around in the early evening and it's almost lost all of it's negative connotations from my first run there way back in 2001.

Knitting continues apace. I've been working on several separate projects. My attention span could be better. I'll knit for a few days on a scarf, then on a shawl, then on another shawl, then another scarf. Nothing seems to be getting toward completion. The lace class we were scheduled to take was canceled, of course after we had bought the yarn for it (yes, I bought yarn for it even though I had 2 other perfect yarns in the stash I could have used. What's your point?). So Ann and I intend to get together weekly and figure it out ourselves. In the fall, when it's quieter. Meanwhile I'm hoping to finish a scarf or two.

I ran one of my favorite local races a couple of days ago, the second half of the San Francisco Marathon. I may even get around to doing a race report one of these days. Like past years I enjoyed the race, not so much the finish area mess. They change that part every year and so far, last year was best (in my opinion of course, yours may vary).

I've been reading a lot, which is one reason my knitting is suffering. Still haven't figured out a way to get quality reading and quality knitting done at the same time. I'm not much for audio-books since I like seeing the written word. I'm having enough trouble adjusting to a Kindle instead of paper. And adjusting to being able to buy all the books in a series at a single button push. Or several other books by the same author. Ooopsie, now I have even more to read!

What have you been up to? How's your summer going? What are you knitting? What are you reading? Hot enough for ya?