How NOT to Train for the Detroit Marathon

Well, well, well... It is less than a week before my first marathon and I can count the injuries on two hands. Needless to say, I should be enjoying my taper period instead of icing, massaging, elevating, medicating and worrying. Lets hit the checklist:

• Left Knee - IT Band Syndrome? It only hurts on the longer runs, and it hurts more the further I go. The distance run is also directly proportional to the time it is aggravated after the fact. 
  

• Right Knee - IT Band Syndrome? Much like the left knee, but VERY recent and much more painful. The left knee is bearable, but the right knee is new and definitely a tough mental hurdle. Hmm, second most troublesome injury, but not by much. F me if I have to dish out another $17 for another one of those damn knee straps.
  

• Right Big Toe - It hurts, as if I stubbed it and it's bruised on the inside. Been in pain since the 18.5 last Tuesday. Not bad, but not good - definitely bearable though.
  

• Both Calves -Recovering from being severely strained. Strained on a 14-miler a couple weeks earlier. I stopped for 60 seconds to grab an energy gel out of my CamelBak around mile 10 and had to fidget with it b/c I had never used the zipper before. I kept walking, but my calves locked up pretty nastily. This has never happened to me before. I stretched them out, but they still felt like rocks. I finished the run going hard b/c my ego got the best of me and I wanted to come in under a 9 min/mile. Oops? Lesson learned.
  

• Left Foot - Outside arch of foot, about a 1/2 inch off of ground, but closer towards my heal. Feels like a ligament strain and doesn't seem to hurt that much when I run, but is a BITCH after the run when trying to walk around. I find myself walking on the toes of my left foot to try not to bend it. Ice seems to help. This is the most troublesome injury because it does not seem muscle related. Grrr.

The calf injury was a HUGE problem. It kept me off the trail for a week, and running short-mileage runs for the week following. Because of this, I missed my 20-miler, arguably the most important training run of the whole program. I also missed the build-week leading up to it. I was supposed to start my taper right when my calves felt good enough to continue, but I couldn't do that knowing that I hadn't done a run above 14 miles in almost a month. I HAD to get one more long run in. Had to.

So, on Tuesday (the 6th) I woke up at 4:30am and dragged my ass down to the trail to start get in an 18.5 mile run before work. Sweet.

It sucked.

This is when the foot injury started. Of course, thanks to my friend Mr. Advil, I didn't feel anything until about an hour after the run. Long story not-as-long, I was on my feet the rest of the day for work and didn't get to do the cherished beer & chocolate post-run celebration (great idea, lynn!). Probably not smart. Poor rest, no icing = baaaaad.

While I should probably can the idea of doing a marathon given all of the recent setbacks and poor training, I'm not sure I can do that. We'll rest up this week, continue to tackle some baby-lengthed runs and focus all efforts towards being able to put the best effort/performance forward this Sunday.

Ice. Advil. Rest. Sunday.

My goal was 3:59:59, but I'd settle for a successful race (finish without totally bombing) if you asked me today. Hopefully by Saturday night I can look myself in the mirror and say, "3:59:59 - you've got a shot."