“It’s a marathon not a sprint, but I’m going to run f***ing fast.”
16:49 for 5K! It’s not a PR, but it’s so much more than that — it’s the rekindling of a dream.
- 5 years since I had last raced on a track.
- 8 years since I last ran a 5K under 17 minutes.
- 10 years since I last had a year straight running injury free.
This past decade has been a battle to keep fighting for the sport of running. Until this past year, I had been stuck in an endless injury cycle: posterior tib stress reaction, heel bursitis, achilles tendonitis, sesamoid stress fracture, more achilles tendonitis, partial achilles tear, even more achilles issues stemming from a Haglund’s deformity, a metatarsal stress fracture, and innumerable small hiccups along the way.
During this decade, I had slowly come to accept that my fastest track times were behind me. I dabbled in triathlon so that I could still feel like I was racing competitively, but my heart still just wanted to run. After a PRP injection and some ESWT, I was healthy enough that I could train ~5-6 days a week with some minor pain. Track speed and track spikes were still too much for my achilles, so I turned to the roads and even had a great debut marathon in Paris in April 2022. But even so, I felt limited. My achilles was constantly on the edge, I still needed to take many unplanned days off, the low grade heel pain was a constant, but most importantly to me all my goals felt just out of reach with my achilles blocking my way.
In January 2023, I decided to get surgery. I had an arthroscopic heel surgery to shave down the bone so that it would stop irritating my achilles. Overall, it took me 8 months post surgery to feel truly normal running again. In retrospect, 8 months for a full recovery sounds pretty reasonable, but at the time I was told it would only be 4 months, so by 6 months I was truly worried that I had made things worse by getting that surgery.
But by spring 2024, I was consistently running 40-50 miles / week on 6 days of running a week, the highest weekly mileage I had sustained in years. I got too excited, ramped back up too quickly, and had to scratch out of the Boston marathon due to a metatarsal stress fracture.
But I healed and I got stronger. A little over a year ago in May 2024, I set my sights on the NYC marathon that fall — I wanted to run under 2:45. With the help of my coach (Roberta Groner) and team (Central Park Track Club), I built back gradually. I was able to run 6 days a week, reaching up to 60 miles. Not very high mileage for marathon training, but more mileage than I’d run in years while running pain free and healthier than ever. At the 2024 NYC marathon, I ran 2:44:06, a marathon PR but also proof to myself that I could still compete at a high level. It gave me confidence and gave me hope that I could still dream big.
Fast forward to today, I’ve been running healthy continuously for more than a year. About 6 weeks ago (after a lackluster road 10 mile performance), my coach and I decided — why not just hop into a track 5K in 6 weeks, see what these marathon legs have got. Not a full track build, but enough to get some spring back into my legs, some pep and power into my step. And surprisingly, that feeling of track speed started coming back to me. I almost felt like the same runner I was a decade ago, except better. I’m a different runner now — I’m older and a heck of a lot wiser. I’m 10 lbs heavier, 10 lbs stronger, 10 lbs smarter.
When I crossed that track 5K finish line last night in 16:49, I was one part tired, one part in disbelief, and one part right at home. I had forgotten how much a track 5K just burns, how much you need to fight to focus every single lap. But I remembered how good it felt to kick it in with all you have in the final straightaway. And I remembered that I had once had a dream to break 16 in the 5K. Last night gave me confidence that my fastest track times are ahead of me.
- 5 years from now, I hope to have run sub 16 in the 5K, sub 2:37 in the marathon, and raced at the Olympic Trials
- 8 years from now, I hope to have raced my first ironman (and maybe Kona qualification?!)
- 10 years from now — I’ll need to figure out some more athletic goals if I actually accomplish the ones above first.
Track is back and so am I! I’m picking back up on my running dreams, but this time with more patience and care for my body. As much as I want to crush my athletic goals, above all else I want to wake up every day healthy and happy and be able to go for a run. Good things take time, and sometimes you need to slow down to speed up. Like they say, it’s a marathon not a sprint, but that doesn’t mean that I still can’t run fast along the way :)
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