What Happened to the Other Three Running Duricks?

We are still running.  I just haven’t blogged since January which is insane.  The kids have been doing great in their races lately.  I had some epic winter training and then got sidetracked with a minor foot issue and ended up bailing on my spring races.

Run Your Heart Out Finish

In February the boys and I did Run Your Heart Out 5K.  It was a new course for this race, and there were some hills at the end.  We had a great time at the race, and even got some warm weather for February.

Run Your Heart Out 5K

 In March we did Run for Haiti 5K.  We love this race because it’s for an amazing cause, and the energy at the race is always terrific. 

Run for Haiti finish

14 and under age group awards with Moise Joseph from the Haitian Olympic team

The boys killed it at this race putting up big course PRs and also grabbing 2^nd and 3^rd places in the 14 and under age group.  This is huge for them because it’s always hard to get an age group award at a Potomac River Racing event.  The even bigger news was that even though I thought I ran a bad race I also ended up with 3^rd in my age group for the event.  It had been my goal for the year to age group in a Potomac River race so I was excited about that.

Some friends and I...we all won age group awards!

 

We were busy with other sports in April so we didn’t do any formal races, but the kids and I hit up the 6K Walk for Water at the State Department in DC.  We elected to run our 6K for water and had a great time on the course. 

 

Next up was Bodies in Motion 5K in May which has an insane amount of rolling hills.  The boys did a great job and PRd the course as well.  Nic just straight killed this race and took 8 minutes off his time from last year.  He almost broke 26 minutes and is having a great year with 5Ks so far with all 5Ks sub-27 so far this year.  I got a 3^rd place in my age group at Bodies in Motion, but they only gave awards for the top in each age group so no fun prize for me.  This was Zach’s only race this year with a 27+minute finish, and he had a rough go of it. 

Zach finishing Bodies in Motion

Some friends and I pre-race

No racing in June, but July brought us the Freedom Firecracker 5K. Fast, flat course that was a revisit of the PR setting Thanksgiving race.  It was rainy to start and humid at the finish so no PRs, but the boys once again brought home 2^nd and 3^rd in their age groups.

So let’s talk about the ultra season that never materialized for me after my huge winter training cycle.  I felt stronger and fitter through this past training cycle than I ever had.  I had done tons of strength work and a lot of specific workouts and had insane volume for me.  I was at multiple 50+ mile weeks.  About a week before Blue Ridge Marathon, I started to experience pain in my left 2^nd/3^rd metatarsal area which was particularly bad during hill work.  I went and got checked for a stress fracture.  Phew!  No stress fracture, just inflammation.  After thinking it through I decided to withdraw from Blue  Ridge in an attempt to save the bigger goal of Mohican 50 in June.  The hills of Blue Ridge would have really put me out for a long time.  I mostly biked and did some running leading up to Glacier Ridge Trail 50K.  I was really excited for GRT and thought that I could do really well at it.  I did really well and was killing the course and feeling very strong running the hills particularly the downhills aggressively.  It was unseasonably warm, but I was dialed in with hydration and nutrition and feeling good. 

Feeling the heat at the GRT

 However, by the 25K mark, the rocky terrain and constant rolling hills on the trail were wearing on my foot.  I could have pushed through and a year ago I probably would have pushed through, but I made the decision to drop at the 25K point.  Oddly, I wasn’t upset and felt really calm with my decision.  Truthfully, I just didn’t have the fire for it.  As many others who have run Oil Creek have said, I feel like I left a little part of myself out there on that trail last October.  Having done something so amazing and been in such a dark place for so much of that race has put some things in perspective.  I didn’t feel the need to prove to myself or anyone else that I could tough it out at GRT.  I knew I could tough it out, but it wasn’t smart to tough it out.  I was changing my gait and risking a longer term injury.  After that, I made the decision that Mohican was not in the cards for this year.  I backed off of running quite a bit and focused on strength and yoga to let my foot get back to normal.  I’ve just started to consistently get back to training this month and finally got a run above 6 miles with no pain in my foot.  I don’t know what I’m going to do for fall races, and I’m OK with that.  I’m looking forward to having fun with the kids at fall 5Ks and on the trails and toying with the idea of trying for a PR half, but who knows?

In more exciting news we will be off on an epic adventure to the Pacific Northwest soon so we will have a lot of exciting hiking adventures and trail porn to post in the next month.