Goblin Gallup 5k, Fairfax, VA - Finally back running!

Well, its been a tough 7 months.  I am not back to full form but I am running which is alot better than where I was just 2.5 months ago.  In March/April after a hard training cycle in the Winter, I rolled my ankle at Battlefield during a 7 miler and it developed into peroneal tendonosis in my left ankle.  I think I was already on my way to developing it but the roll didn't help.  Two negative MRI's and 12+ weeks of rehab, many othro visits who wanted to do surgery (even with no tears), it finally started feeling better.  During that period I hiked and biked but unfortunately, rest and limited strengthening was the key to getting it better.  Additionally, massage therapy on the ankle that contained all the scar tissue on that tendon helped as well.  During this entire period, it felt strong but was aching just under the ankle bone and was tied to two knots in the gastrocnemius muscle part of the calf.  I am still in the process of trying to keep my calves loose during all my training.  Additionally, in coming back, I ended up getting orthotics.  For me it was a big mistake as it caused issues in my right (non-injured) ankle.  So I scraped the orthotics all together (after 2 months) and bought a pair of new Brooks Ghost 8 Aurora's and have not been using any other soles than the ones that came with the shoe.  So far so good and I am back up to around 20 a week although this week was a short week due to me rehabing the right ankle.  Below is a snapshot of my comeback miles:

As you can see from the graph, I started back running 3 miles in early August, then moved to 5 miles, then slowly moved up from there.  Next week, I plan on getting back to a 20+ mile week again.

Goblin Gallup 5k:
So we arrived at Farifax Station around 7:30am, hit the dumper as usual.  Zach and Nic had baseball tryouts the night before so I knew they were pretty tired and didn't know how they would do or even if they felt like running.  I was somewhat excited to pace Nic as he had been doing better and better each 5k he ran.  His previous 5k PR on this course was 25:13.  The 1k fun run was at 8:30 in which most of the kids dressed.  Meanwhile, nic, zach, and I warmed up with a small .75 mile jog.  After that, we head over to the start.  9:00 rolls around so we are at the line and we are off.  Nic takes off in a dead sprint, you know, the kind where they run balls to the wall and just know they can't hold that pace.  I told him to just go at his pace and I would follow.  I lagged a little behind b/c this was my first race back and didn't need to injure anything again.  I look at the watch after .50 miles and its in the high 6/min mile range and am thinking thats pretty fast for an 8 year old.  Finally, we it the first mile at 7:32 which on this course was pretty good.  Just a note, it had been raining pretty decent most of the morning so the road was kind of slick but nothing that bad.  His second mile was his worst which was a 8:19.  To be fair, it had a decent amount of hills in that second mile.  So at mile two, he asked me if he could run harder and I said, umm, your not running hard now?  He gave me no response and he took off like he had at the start of the race.  Straching my head, I just didn't know how he could go from running to sprinting at mile two.  Oh well, I let him dictate the pace and we had a couple nice hills the last mile.  He powered up them and got a 8:09 third mile and finished the 3.14 mile race in 24:55/7:57 pace for a new PR.  However, since he is competing against all 13/14 year old, he came in 8th out of 32nd and 41st out of 150 male runners.  Not bad for someone who doesn't run at all.

Me, I felt pretty good the whole way.  After the race, the left ankle was aching a tad but that is usually b/c of the tight left calf which felt better after I stretched it.  Oh yea, I came in 5th in my age group but wasn't really running since I was pacing Nic.  Big Zach who took a baseball off his face last night, powered through with a 25:50 for a new PR himself.  I could tell his face was hurting and he is just like me.  I had to work for every improvement I got - nic, it just seems to come easier.  Mom came in 27th out of 100 females, not bad for not running hard.

Here is a pic of us goofing around before the race:

After the race, Mom was quick on the phone to snap these:

Other than that, its nice to run a race and not be in pain.  We'll see how the rest of the fall goes and see if I can get back into Marathon shape for early next spring.  I am going to run some smaller races this Fall while trying to up my mileage.