Superior 50 closure

I am 7 days out from Moose Mountain marathon and I am still hoping to run the race even though I am still nursing an injury and my training is mostly non existent over the last 5 weeks. My last long run was at the end of July and it was 16 miles on roads. My average weekly manage since then is a little under 3 miles/week, yes that is it.

I really want to do this event, as it would complete the circle and bring closure to the Superior 50 that I failed to finish in 2010 when I missed the cutoff at the Cramer Road aid station (Moose Mountain starting line). In that race I had intended to continue despite an injury but the cutoff intervened. I am thinking it is poetic, to start Moose in pain and then to finish it off just seems right, it will be a long day but I should have time to do it.

I could use a little closure as I feel I have been pretty much a running failure since that day. Although I was struggling a little in 2010 with some minor issues, the Superior 50 was the true start of some more legitimate injuries (meaning not training related) and me not taking the time to recover properly which basically means compensation injuries. My injury was a weird one but it was legit and if there is one thing I have proven over the last 4 years is that trying to run long distance events injured is not a good plan. I know that I haven't been smart about allowing for recovery time and have been too driven to finish what I have signed up for. This whole year appears to be a reminder of my last four years of running while injured. The one consolation this year is my injuries were not caused by running and I am learning to not just push through them but obviously based on the fact that I still intend to run Moose I may need some additional lessons.

One thing that could keep me from doing this race is that I had a MRI yesterday to determine/confirm the foot injury and expect to hear from my Dr next week as to what it means. It is possible he will tell me that I shouldn't run and if he does I will probably listen. He had advised me to not run last weekend at the Urban Trail and I listened to him. Of course, I did regret not running even though I couldn't walk or run without pain.

So hopefully a week from today, it begins, my quest to close a loop I have left open for 4 years and it becomes my catalyst to finishing up the year with a few pain free races. I do know that I intend to enjoy every step of Moose and hopefully by next Saturday I will be pain free and just worrying about how do I run a marathon on 3 miles a week training :-).