Giving Up is Hard to Do!
The day after my last race, I started having trouble walking on my left foot. I don't remember doing anything to strain my foot and I'm pretty sure I didn't fall, so I was a little befuddled as to what was going on. The more I walked on it, the worse it felt. FINALLY, after a week, I dragged myself to the doctor. Diagnosis: Either I have metatarsalgia (pain in foot - duh) or a stress fracture. Since stress fractures don't show up on x-rays right away I saw no point in paying for one of those. I agreed to stay off my foot for a couple of weeks.
OOPS! I didn't take into consideration that I had an upcoming race in a few days. Since I had somewhat behaved during the week, I wasn't hurting TOO badly. I decided to race. My only goal would be to finish so I didn't lose my total points position in the series.
Lap 1: I rocked it. I knew that I had to stay on my bike at all times to survive this race, so no walking ANY hills. I had to drop into the lowest gear to get up a couple of the hills without putting too much pressure on my foot, but otherwise I felt pretty darn good. Big sigh of relief!
Lap 2: Hitting that big hill coming out of the counting corral, I started to feel twinges in my foot. Even though I was in my baby gear, I thought I might be in trouble. I kept my bike in a lower gear than normal and concentrated on not applying too much pressure. As I hit each uphill climb, I was having more and more trouble. Then I hit a steep hill that I have struggled with EVERY race. About 1/4 of the way up, my bike stopped and my foot went down. I felt a rather large twinge and knew I was in trouble since I had two more laps to go.
I hiked my bike up and got back on - thankfully BEFORE my buddy Lee went by me. The next section was a rather bumpy trail and I could feel every bump even with my full suspension bike. Then I hit a majorly bumpy downhill - a hill I usually fly down - and I was almost in tears by the time I bounced to the bottom. Knowing the counting corral was only about a mile ahead, I continued trying to convince myself I could tough this out. . .but I was also breaking a sweat from the pain (not just the heat) and starting to get dizzy. YEP! I was definately in trouble.
As I cleared lap 2, Anya passed me. I don't typically see her quite so soon. I looked at the counters and told them I was done. The whole crowd went "awww" for me. It kinda startled me (and secretly pleased me for the support) but I kept riding towards the car, because I knew I wasn't going to be able to walk. The hubby walked beside my bike and told me all the things I had already told myself. Better to preserve my foot than to do more damage to it. Unfortunately, words like QUITTER and WIMPY and LOSER wound through my head as I arrived at our car. I put my foot down to get off my bike and it wouldn't even support my weight. I teared up and the hubby helped me off my bike. SIGH.
DNF - Did Not Finish
Even though I know this was the right thing to do - staying off my bike really STINKS! My next race is in three weeks. Please, please, PLEASE let my foot be OK!!!
