If you have been following my blog closely, you may have noticed that I haven’t been writing about running.  This is because I haven’t actually done a run, due to my foot issues, since April 25th.  I have relied on swimming and biking to maintain my fitness, while carefully nursing my foot back to health.  My foot is very close to fully healed, so I did a short run this morning to check it out.

Why would I even consider racing on Sunday, if I haven’t run for close to a month?  While not running isn’t ideal preparation, it also isn’t a complete disaster.  As long as I can get to the start line healthy, then there is a very good chance that I can have a successful race.  Sure, I won’t be a peak run fitness, but I am still fit, and I haven’t forgotten how to run.

My foot was sufficiently recovered that I decided to check it out, with a twenty minute run around downtown Chattanooga.  I started off very slowly.  The foot felt good, so I picked up the pace a little.  My foot still felt good, so I then did a few ten second bursts.  Again, this felt good, so I ran a few more minutes and stopped.

The key now was, how would the foot react?  My biggest issue towards the end of rehabbing the foot, has been some minor Achilles tendonitis.  So when my Achilles tendon felt a little sore an hour later, I was not surprised.  I responded to this by icing it down, and now it feels much better.

Doing a short run this morning has confirmed to me, that I able to race on Sunday.  I have no idea how well the race will go, but that is true of every race.