On the Mend, Again

Obviously, I was meant to take another break from running.  I thought I was doing everything right recovering from my ankle injury that occurred in November.  I was careful not to push too hard and slowly increased my mileage each month.  I felt good.  The Cape May Point races were coming up and I felt like the 2 races totaling 7 miles would be a good challenge. To date I was up to 6.2 miles so another 0.8 would be fine.  For those that are not runners, when you train for a half or full marathon you don’t run the actual distance during training.  For the half you run ten miles and the full you get to twenty miles.  I did an easy run the Friday before and felt ready.  Saturday morning I was a bit nervous but needed to trust the process.  I met up with my running group, it was great to see everyone.  I  planned to not truly race the 2 runs but just get through them, that went out the window when the first gun went off.  For those not familiar with Cape May county, when it is windy and you are trying to bike or run no matter what direction you turn you seem to be running into the wind.  There was a nice breeze that hot morning, I thought this would help, boy was I wrong.  This morning the breeze seemed to die every time I hit a sunny spot in the road when I needed it the most.  I pushed on, I was making good time considering I still struggled with my breathing post covid from January.  As I neared the finish line for the two mile race I slowed, just trying to finish without walking.  I saw a runner that had recently passed me and pushed to take back my spot in front of them. I did it and finished the race in 19:24.  Out of breath but overall in good shape.  I had about 30 minutes until the start of the 5 mile race.  I chatted with friends and before I knew it, it was time to line up.  Second gun goes off and I stick to my original plan to just complete the distance.  My ankle did not get this memo and decided at mile 3.5 it was done.  The pain started on the outside of my ankle so I took a break from running and walked for a bit.  To date, I have never not finished a race I started and I did not plan on this being that day, I continued to walk and when the ankle felt better ran until it said walk.  I finished the race and grabbed a couple of drinks. The lemonade from Nauti Spirits is delicious.  After the awards I headed home to ice my ankle.  I stayed off it as much as I could for the rest of the weekend and started doing some of my physical therapy exercises from the previous injury.  After a week I broke down and made an appointment with my orthopedic doctor.  MRI results showed a stress fracture to the heel and three muscles that were inflamed but no tears.  At the time of the MRI I was about 4 weeks out from injury and still have about 4-8 weeks more of recovery.  Physical therapy has started and both the doctor and therapist are confident I will be able to do the TriWildwood Triathlon at the end of August.  While I am not cleared to run, biking and swimming are back on the list of approved activities.  Training resumes!  While you may not believe it at the time sometimes setbacks are needed for you to make progress.  Have you had a setback that later you could see how it helped in the long run?  I would love to hear about your success in the comments!