At some point in 2018, I decided I would run my first ultramarathon the following year. On December 10, 2018, I signed up for the 2019 BMW Dallas Ultramarathon and I crossed the finish line of that race on December 15, 2019.
When the year started, I thought 2019 was going to be my year. I was confident about my ability to get through the year injury-free and confident that I would be able to steadily progress towards my goals without any setbacks. As you might have intuited by now, that was not the case. During a trail 10K at the end of February 2018, I sustained a hip labral tear that took me out of running/training for months. When it hurt to run more than 2-3 miles, I could no longer imagine myself crossing the finish line for an ultramarathon and I felt devastated.
Initially, my injury was incorrectly diagnosed as a stress fracture, but when I continued to feel pain despite following what the sports medicine doctor had outlined, I sought a second opinion. After an initial consult with the second doctor where I got an x-ray of my hip area, I went in for an MR Arthrogram and I got the new diagnosis: a hip labral tear resulting from femoroacetabular impingement (FAI). This essentially meant that I had extra bone growth in my left hip joint that gave the bones in the joint an irregular shape. Over time, the grinding of the bones together caused a tear in the labrum. After confirming the labral tear, I received a steroid injection in my hip area and got an at-home physical therapy program, which I religiously followed because I wanted to get back to running.
When I got the diagnosis, there were a couple of races I immediately had to drop out of but there were others in August-December I decided to hold out for in the case I was ready to run again by then. I took a couple of weeks off from running after the diagnosis and MR Arthrogram – when I resumed, I started with very low mileage and over the duration of my training cycle for the 50K, I didn’t do any intense speedwork nor did I do hill workouts. Speed work and hill work had both previously exacerbated the pain I felt, so I decided those were worth giving up so that I wouldn’t put that additional strain on my body. And it worked!
- REVEL Chilliwack Half Marathon – August 2019
2. Plano Balloon Festival Half Marathon – September 2019
3. Palo Duro Canyon 25K – October 2019
4. Hill Country Trivium Marathon – November 2019
5. BMW Dallas 50K – December 2019
Although my race schedule felt very aggressive, the only race I actually raced was the 50K. Each race helped me build my confidence and helped me feel ready to tackle the ultra, both physically and mentally. The biggest thing I would do differently is to not do anything at all the day before the 50K. I decided to run the 5K in the series as a shakeout race the day before the 50K and I ended up spending a lot more time on my feet than I intended to. The ultra was hard as hell – the weather was a lot warmer than I had hoped – and I had trouble taking in gels after 3.5 hours. The Coke they had at the aid stations saved me out there and allowed me to cross the finish line in 05:24:02. My goal finish time was 5 hours but this still feels like a victory to me.
Up next? My first trail ultramarathon! Time will tell when that will happen because of COVID-19, but my hope is that it will be this year.
