Preventing Stress Fractures

A few years back….

While most people respect athletes, when I fractured my third metatarsal and went to immediate care for an x-ray the orthopedic doctor was very rude to me. He told me that it was my fault that my foot was broken, and running was completely pointless, and actually yelled at me. Even when I told him my race wins, and highly respected times that I have run in the half and full marathon, he would not stop telling me my foot fracture was my fault.

Nevertheless, my father brought me to my next appointment, and then I went to a correct orthopedic doctor, and he was very polite. In the end, all I needed was a walking cast, and a few months later my foot was fine, everything healed beautifully. I have been running great on my foot since. My parents are still my advocates for important issues such as health. Any athlete who meets a certain standard should be respected in life, and no one deserves to be yelled at or told that their injury is their fault. While I have accomplishments in running, I am still pursuing an MBA and graduate school for mathematics, and work in the software industry. I can never understand why this orthopedic doctor told me running is not a real career and my fracture was completely my fault, it almost turned into a legal matter, because I was so upset. This experience made me extra grateful for my parents, and going to Dr. Cambrai for a second opinion. Here are my tips for injury prevention!

Here are things that I have to prevent foot injuries

  1. I have custom orthotics made for my sneakers by a foot specialist. You NEED custom orthotics for long distance running, no matter what sneakers you’re wearing the orthotics make the difference in injury prevention and your speed.

  2. I take a calcium supplement for healthy bones . Try BONE UP

  3. I wear compression socks for good circulation in my feet. There are so many cute ones out there now, it’s almost fashionable.

  4. I bring my Wear Safe button everywhere. This device syncs with your phone, to record conversation and GPS coordinates, to alert emergency contacts if something is wrong.

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Long Run Tuesday

Running 18 miles today, I really reflected on my life plan and spirituality. It feels good to slowly run long distance, being pensive, listening to nature, almost being in a meditative state, breathing deeply and slowly with a relaxed cadence whilst springing my legs. After running long distance becomes easier over time, it can be such a euphoric experience that I am very grateful to have in my daily life. I love, I love, I love it. I have three very nice rings that I wear everyday, accumulated through the past seven years, one symbolizes peace, the second is chaos, and the third is representative of how real magic is made. One ring is Tiffany, the second is from a weekend in Kennebunkport Maine, and the third was made by a jeweler with hand selected stones. I always look at my rings while running, it makes me very happy.

Run Happy!

A Brief Conversation

I was having a conversation with a friend and their daughter about running certain distances at certain ages. I have no idea what is normal for other people in terms of extra long distance running. The conversation had me thinking, what pain will they be in running a marathon or would they feel that way running a half marathon? How do I make a recreational marathon training program for my friend.. is there a way to do it? As an athlete, I am very good at making health and wellness programs, perhaps training others for recreational 5k’s. Making marathon or half-marathon programs for other people is out of my comfort zone.

I started to run marathons a little on the younger side, and wondering what my life would be like if I waited until twenty-five. Twenty-five or thirty is a more common age to start running the marathon, because you’re full grown and it’s different. Now, I am twenty-five. For years I have thought twenty-five is the age marathon magic will be brought to the next level. This year, I originally thought I would run Boston and Berlin and then stop running, it blows my mind how things can change in either direction.

Back to the conversation, I feel like I ran my fastest half-marathon time in my teens, but maybe I could have saved the full marathon distance for later. I never felt pain running the half-marathon fast younger, was a big point that I made. However, being a marathon runner is who I am, so of course I am happy that I started when I did. To the racer, I would recommend saving the marathon distance for later in life. It is a very big leap to go from running a fast 5k to running a fast marathon. The marathon is hard to race, more than just running, because you need special strategies and techniques that take years to learn, and even then it is still a distance out of a typical comfort zone. Running marathons fast can feel like being in the Hunger Games. Personally, I feel like I had to run twenty miles a day for three years to feel a level of comfortable racing the marathon distance for really throwing myself out there for a fast time. In life, I would recommend sticking to the half marathon until hitting your twenties, because that is the way to be. I met my first boyfriend in college after running my first marathon, he was very tall and nice to carry my books to our British Writers class for me and bring me pizza. It is really funny, when I think of my first marathon after my parents dropped me off in my dorm, I think of him carrying me around everywhere for a week and watching movies. Very funny, and so worth being fast in long distance running. Just like Cinderella, and everything happened at once. Oh to become a marathon runner and feel in love all in one day, 26.2 miles and finding the true meaning of friendship is a really big deal! My point is, even though I started racing the marathon at 18, it would have been just as big starting at 25 and I think I would have felt better. I cannot imagine waiting another seven years, but it seems that all the things could have come later, nothing has changed. It is okay to not go further than a fast half marathon under twenty.

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My side hustle

On the side, I have always liked tutoring math. I took through calc three my senior year of highschool, and I like to do tutoring lessons in easy ways to learn harder content with a positive attitude. You can be happy learning difficult things and still do them well, and the same goes for running well. I am sharing some of my tutoring content on YouTube, with this awesome app Explain Everything. I like it a lot, because I can add videos of myself or my voice and it automatically turns my slides into videos. There is a lazer pointer too.

https://explaineverything.com/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW7rWLFdsf2_sCkoe8gO61g

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Virtual Races to Take advantage of!

You can run all of the Disney races, and have all the Disney medals running virtually 2021! I think this is so cool!! Here is the link to sign up for the Dopey Challenge and Princess race series!!😻 Honestly, running virtually for all the Disney medals makes me just as happy as if Boston or Berlin had worked out this year! Check out the Disney races!

https://www.rundisney.com/events/

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