Marathons... Better than a Root Canal!

Warning: The following message is rated P for Painful tooth extraction and contains self-medicating NSAID abuse. 

I've heard a lot of comments from non runners about how "crazy" I am for all my running. The first time I tell them about my marathoning (and the many, many subsequent times I talk about running in general), they make that 'I just smelled a crop duster' face and say things like "How can you enjoy it???" As if I told them I like to spend my weekends torturing bunnies and chewing on light bulbs. Well this weekend I was able to personally prove that the old cliche "I'd rather have a root canal than..." does not apply to marathon running.

I arrived in NY very late Friday night with a slight tooth ache. I took a handful of ibuprophen (note: Steph's 100 marathon challenge does not promote self medicating behavior... unless you want to share) and went to bed.  In the morning I had a terrible ache in my mouth. My usual ibu/wine combo wasn't even strong enough to kick it. Luckily our local dentist was willing to come in on a weekend and take an X-Ray. As it turns out, that re-worked root canal I had paid an obscene amount of money for a few years ago, was failing. #Awesome. I was given an antibiotic and codeine (SWEET!) in hopes to relieve the pain and bring down the swelling until I could return to OH/KY and have somebody work on it. No such luck... and the antibiotics were making me loopy on top of it.

The night before I was supposed to run the marathon I was up every hour in pain. When I awoke I was exhausted and in more pain than ever. 1,12-hour aleeve, 12 ibuprophen, 2 codeine pills, and 2 tylenol PM and I wasn't able to sleep and was still in a bad way. I made the choice to go back to the dentist and get my tooth extracted rather than fight the good fight... hey! I live in KY, I'm not expected to have all my teeth! 

Rotary Run 5 Miler

...Of course not before racing! We happen to live right on the course of a 5-mile race that was going on that morning. Convenient? I think so! I figured I wouldn't be able to run after the tooth extraction, so I ran down the street and jumped in the Rotary Run 5-mile and won it :) More importantly- I was able to wear my FLOWER!!! That's right, my "Rock Star" flower came in this week! (read more about flowers here). I had won this race in the past, but that was in my prime-- and without a pharmacy in my stomach. 

The first mile has a good downhill portion and the drugs were making me quite trippy-- so I thought going off at a 6:50 was a brilliant idea. I would pay for it later on the uphill. I was able to keep it to 7:28's on a relatively hill course. Not great, but good enough for a W. It also gave me a little practice in short distance running, which (if you read my last post) is something I've been working on, while getting my marathon training in. Yay! 

After the 5-mile race I ran home, showered, and then went outside to cheer on the 5K runners as they went by... then went to get my tooth removed from my mouth. Cody bear and I cheering on the runners ----> 

So I wasn't able to run a marathon this weekend, but there were good point to be focused on...

• MB was able to catch up a little more in our marathon count. She finished marathon #72 :)
• Last week I hit 6 lbs in my weight loss progress and now I'm 6 lbs and one tooth lighter!!!
• I was able to wear my Rock Star flower for the first time
• I won a race!

All great points if I do say so myself!!! 

While traveling in CT on Monday and Tuesday I was able to get one solid run in and one fantastic "hotel" workout in! More on that later this week!

I'm back from the northeast and ready to get my speed on! Yassos today!

-Stephanie
"Run to Win" -Meb