Column: Twelve in 2012

It’s a good thing we gave ourselves a year to complete our Twelve in ’12 goal — I might need every last day. I’m on the injured reserve list as of March 28 with a tear in my gastrocnemius (calf muscle).

I was coaching first base for the Saint Mary’s University fastpitch softball team and there was a close play at home plate. The catcher dropped the ball while tagging my runner and the umpire was on the backside of the play. I jumped up and yelled, “She dropped it,” and then I nearly dropped to the ground too. I had felt a jolt of electricity up the back of my calf.

Nervous that it was my Achilles tendon, I slowly stood up and tried to move my ankle around. There was sharp pain and I couldn’t put any weight on my right leg, but the pain was definitely higher in my calf. When the inning was over, I hobbled my way to our dugout.

Over the next couple of days both the athletic trainers at SMU and a doctor at Fairview Red Wing told me I had a tear in my gastrocnemius. I was on crutches for a few days (it was supposed to be a week but coaching with crutches is impossible) and then put into a cam walker boot, which I’ll be wearing for at least a few weeks.

The good news is that it’s just my calf and not my Achilles — which would have been a much longer healing process. The bad news is that I was doing really well building up my running distances and that has now come to a screeching halt.

I’ve gotten in two workouts in the last two weeks since the injury. I went lap swimming one day where I basically just pulled and didn’t kick and I biked on a stationary bike with my cam boot on.

Because of my hectic schedule during softball season, I hadn’t scheduled any races during April or May, thankfully. But the next race I am registered for is the Minneapolis Marathon, Half-Marathon or Relay Marathon on June 3. The race is part of the five-race Team Ortho Monster Series, which I signed up for back in 2011.

Chad and I hadn’t decided how we were going to run it yet — mostly likely we were going to try to get two more runners to join us in the relay marathon. Either way it was scheduled to be my longest running distance so far this year and now I’m not sure when I’ll even be able to lace up my running shoes.

I’m confident that I’ll be fine swimming and biking over the next few months but just don’t know how my calf will handle the running. If I have to pull out of the June 3 race I won’t be able to complete the Monster Series, which will be a big disappointment to me.

Chad is continuing on without me. He’s already scheduled to compete in a race later this month. It’s called the Heart & S.O.U.L Row, Ride, Run Triathlon and is a fundraiser for a mission trip group at Saint Mary’s. Athletes canoe or kayak 2.5 miles on East Lake Winona, then bike 14 miles from the lake up to campus and then run 3.1 miles through the bluffs on the Saint Mary’s trails.

I’ll be there rooting for him — hopefully with at least two tennis shoes on my feet instead of a boot.

Feel free to email me (cbray@republican-eagle.com) with any comments or race suggestions.

Tags: health, lifestyle, columns