Life out of the Pool: Carlsbad Half-Marathon

The Carlsbad Half Marathon weekend much like last year was extremely busy. This year was even busier than last year. With Brennan working for Insulindependence we attended more of the events than last year and Saturday I spent playing in the alumni water polo game at San Diego State.

The start to this busy weekend would start as many do. Working late into Friday evening. Coming home and just wanting to relax. Having nothing of importance to accomplish I spent the evening relaxing and catching up on the TV shows I missed during the week.

Saturday I would wake up to cold and rain. Making me think please don’t be like this Sunday!! I headed over to San Diego State and spent the afternoon playing against the current Aztec players. The alumni ended up losing by one goal. But we had a great time. I attempted a shot- it was blocked. Believe I had an assist or two. It is always fun to go back and hangout with old teammates and play a little water polo. Basically my entire class showed up. So all my old roomies. We all subbed in together. I would have to say that we all still have it!!! After the game we would all head to Old Town to have a late lunch. I enjoyed hanging out with my roomies for the afternoon. They would all head out later in the evening. I was not able to join them in that adventure. And I am sure that was an adventure!! From lunch I would head home shower change and head to the Ocean House for the banquet dinner being hosted by Insulindependence for all the fundraisers.

The fundraising dinner was fun! A bit funny because Brennan was in work mode. It was funny to watch him address everyone and basically lead the event. Not that I ever thought he was not capable, I mean I watched him present in grad school almost every week. Just still funny to witness him in such a different atmosphere. He did an amazing job and was able to help the organization raise even more money!! After the dinner it was time to head home and get to bed. With a quick stop over at Grandpa's house to visit with the family. My parents had come down to be a part of the weekend by volunteering at the Insulindependence aid station on race day. I spent some time with them and then headed home.

Sunday morning would come earlier then it should have. Even though the half marathon did not go off till later, we needed to arrive early enough to see off the marathon runners and get a group photo. The day would start even earlier for my parents who had to be at the aid station early. They had to make sure that they had everything set up when the first runner passed by before 7am. Once the marathon runners were off we just hung out for a while. Once it got closer to the start of the half marathon the entire fundraiser group got in for a picture. Brennan and I then headed over to our corral to get the race underway.

I had high hopes for this half marathon. I looked to better my time for last year. I had done a better job with training, however in getting in more training I had also hurt my foot. About two weeks before the race, I had been out on a training run with about 2 miles left of my 12 miles I got a cramp in the bridge of my right foot. I figured it would go away. I finished my run and did my normal ice bath. My foot was really sore. I stretched it and attempted to rest it. I took a few days off in the hopes it would feel better. It felt better, yet was still sore to walk on. My training suffered the last two weeks. With it being so sore I struggled to even be walking normal. Walking to the race corral it was already really hurting.

Before the race.. I think this picture is hilarious. Brennan & I look so funny!

A quick picture with our great friend Blair

However I am a Vessey. I had done the training, I had raised the money, and my parents were going to be at mile 3 and 11. Plus with my new job I did not want to show up to work Monday and say that due to a sore foot I did not race. So I entered corral 2 with Brennan. Very quickly I knew that it would be a tough day. I was able to keep a pretty good pace and went through the cycles of pain. It was great to race along with Brennan. He was supportive the entire race. It was great to see my parents on the way out and back. My mom was handing out water and my dad was picking up cups and coaching runners by. It did help with the pain.

As you can see Brennan just enjoying a nice jog- Me trying not to DIE!

I finished the race with a time of 1 hour and 54 minutes. It was only a few more minutes slower than last year and I was still able to hold a decent pace for being in such pain. I found out that I have a higher pain tolerance than I thought!

Here is the video Brennan took during the race- you can see what we saw for the 13.2 miles! You can also read Brennan's thoughts of the race on his blog at diabeticjock.com

After most of our fellow fundraisers finished up we headed to my grandpa's to head out to lunch. We had a great meal at BJ's together. Also nice to spend time with my parents and grandpa. While at lunch I could feel my foot swelling in my shoe.

Once we headed home I finally got to take off my shoe only to find a very swollen foot- that was already very bruised. After a quick shower I spent some time icing it. Thankfully I have a great friend who is still an athletic trainer at SDSU. She took a look at it Monday. Turned out I had an extremely bad sprain of some muscles. I was put into a boot for the next two week and told not to run for a while.

The picture does not do justice to how much pain I was in. But needless to say in the morning it was not bruised at all!

As of today I ran for about 25 minutes!! Finally getting back into it with no major pain. It can still be a bit sore but nothing like it was before or after the race. I have learned my lesson and if it really hurts I need to just stop! I am also trying to be more careful in my training

Thank you to all the people who donated to my campaign my goal was $125. I raised $314. 30.