Cougar 10-Mile Defeat

Saturday was the 10-mile trail race of the Cougar Mountain Series I've been running. The pace in this race started quite a bit faster than the 8-mile race, so it felt great. From the beginning, I knew I was going to be able to up my time from 2-years ago...till I misstepped on mile 4 and rolled my left ankle. I couldn't put weight on it at first but slowly tried to walk it out. Wow did it hurt! After 3 or 4 minutes, I decided I could hobble back along and would finish the race. My ankle burned, but putting weight on it wasn't a huge issue. Though I thought I was taking care of my foot placement, I managed to roll it again on mile 6. This time, there was a bit of a pop and I thought I was surely out of the game. Once again, I spent 3 or 4 minutes walking it out and stubbornly refused to give up. Apparently I didn't learn my lesson...and on mile 8, I rolled and popped it a final time. From there, I hobbled out of the race. A mere 6 minutes off my time from 2-years ago...despite 5-10 minutes of ankle trouble and walking the final 2-miles out. This was THE most defeating race I have ever run. To be so close to my goal and have a joint and not conditioning issue...

What I should be saying is that I'm lucky my ankle is healing quickly and doesn't seem like it'll have lasting issues. It's nearly down to it's normal size and I think I'll be back out running paved trails by the week's end. I am also lucky that I have the 13-mile race in 3-weeks to find redemption. For now though, Eure and I are pretty frustrated w/my immobility. Soooo, it's time to get back at this work bs and research ankle strengthening exercises @ lunch.

Hope y'alls weekend was better than this little engineer's.