My story begins in college. I started running because I loved team sports. I played field hockey and lacrosse. My injuries also began in college. I sprained my ankle a few times and to solve the problem I was taped before every practice and game. My therapy was a bucket of ice water.I didn't start running again until after I had my kids. At this point I ran to have some time to myself. Running helped with the stresses of raising 5 kids. I also liked having a goal so I started doing 5k and 10k races. I quickly turned to triathlons and have been focusing on Ironman for the last few years.I have been injured on and off since I started running again. I first had a partial tear in my achilles which landed me in a boot for 6 weeks. After that I continued to have problems and have tried a variety of running shoes, orthotics, braces, a cortisone shot, physical therapy, and acupuncture. I was determined to run. I thought I needed to run because otherwise I would go crazy!!!! To make things worse, a doctor found that I had ruptured a few ligaments in my ankle ( from my college days) and had a bone spur that was digging into my tendon. I was operated on last October.There was a period of time during my recovery that I wasn't able to do anything. During that time I struggled mentally and didn't know what to do with myself without running or working out. Thanks to Eric, I began to realize that I don't need to run to be happy or sane. I began to be ok with doing nothing!!! It has been a valuable part of my recovery.Today, I run Free both mentally and physically. I have been working with Eric on strengthening my feet and ankles. I do not wear orthotics or shoes with any type of stability or motion control. I run in Nike Frees and my run is up to 2 hours. I plan to race the Boise 1/2 Ironman in 3 weeks.
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