Artichoke's Running Blog (Ken Spence)

I may have either done the stupidest thing in my running career or ran the 2nd gutsiest marathon second only to Boston '07 in the Nor'easter. I was registered to run Ogden, but due to my Sacral Stress Fracture, I thought I would just run the first leg or two, 7 or 13 miles. Just like my last two 5 mile training runs, my back/hip was hurting by mile 2, but by mile 5 it all but went away. I have been able to run every other day for the last two weeks, 3 to 5 miles, with some pain still. It was unbelievable! I decided to start out at about 9 minute pace and see what I could do. My longest training run was 16 miles, the week after Moab and then I didn't run for 4 weeks, just biking on the stationary. The last two weeks I've had improvement, an MRI, diagnosing the stress fracture and I'm scheduled for a CT scan on Monday to confirm, stress fracture or an outside possibility of a tumor, which they doctor doesn't think is the case since this clearly came on as a typical overuse injury. I didn't know if 7 weeks since my last long run could carry me through, but with the slower pace, (9:15 first half and 10:15 second half after hitting the wall big time at about 18 miles. I wanted to walk so bad, but thought that I would never get going again and held on through the finish. We'll see how I feel tomorrow, but I was encouraged. 4:15 is well off my 3:23 at SGM, but all take it under these circumstances.  Now another week off to recuperate.