Top of Utah '08

Last year, Emily and I saw my sister, Kiffin, and her husband, Bryan, run across the finish line at the St. George Marathon. (Well, we didn’t actually see them cross the finish line, and I won’t go into details because it is a long story involving Trina, my mom.) The year before that, my other sister, Kaycee, and her husband, Taylor, ran the Top of Utah, a marathon in Logan, UT. Being the competitor that I am, I decide, along with Emily, that we could not just stand by and let my sisters and their husband show us up, so we decided to join the Warner’s running club. Emily and I are registered to run the Top of Utah Marathon in Logan, UT on September 20th. We both have been training for the past few weeks, and I am having some serious issues. Throughout my entire life, I have been able to get up and run at anytime any distance and have no injuries. Sure, I would have the occasional soreness in my legs but nothing big, but these past few weeks has been brutal! Here is a list of my injuries in the past month and a half. First, my back killed for a week. I could barely stand it hurt so bad. Second, I swear I had a stress fracture on my left foot because it hurt to but any pressure on it, and again, I could barely stand. Third, my calves, actually just my left calf, has tighten into this ball of steel. I tried to massage it, but I stop because I wanted to cry. Forth, my left shin kills! But it only hurts when I run. Halfway through my 3.5 mile run this morning I wanted to hitch a ride home because it hurt so bad. I know that you are all thinking to yourself, “Toughen up TJ,” or in the words of Tuff Hedemen, “Cowboy up!” But seriously, this has never happened to me before. I have never felt like this. I am blaming it on my shoes, but Emily thinks that it is my age. Anyway, I thought it would be kind of fun to track our progress of our running on our blog, and I am going to ask everyone’s advice on how I can prevent these painful injuries.