So it’s been a very long time since my last post and a lot has happened…some good some bad but a lot.
Last summer my foot started to bother me and I ended up dragging myself through the season. I took a little time off and spent a lot of time doing PT. I thought the problem was getting better and began training for the Olympic Year.
Turns out the problem never got better…only grew bigger. I began seeing Dr. Larry Nassar (USA Olympic Gymnastics Dr.) and he did wonders for me. I have also never had a Dr. Spend more time with me and take a case so personally than he did. With Dr. Nassars help I was able to get spikes and have some good workouts. As time went on I was able to train harder, longer, and faster…then I hit the plateau.
I was able to run 53 min. Ten mile runs but not 51. I was able to run low 15 min 5k but not mid 14 min. Anytime I would really start to push myself the pain would get overwhelming. Hurdles…FaGetAboutit. From 8 months of favoring one leg, my good leg began to hurt. This went on for a few more weeks then during a work out 6×1,000m I made it through about two of them before stepping off of the track. I limped over to my coach and said “I’m done”. There was an odd pause then I think he saw the tears in my eyes and knew I didn’t mean just for the day.
I had been pushing so hard on the pain I began to hate what I once loved. I never talked much on my runs anymore, I couldn’t wait till it was over, and I knew getting out of bed in the morning was really going to hurt. My coach told me to keep my head up and reminded me that I had had a pretty nice career and I did make it to the Olympic Trials finals twice. As true as his words were they didn’t make it any easier…I would not see a third Olympic Trials. For those of you who have never ran in front of a packed stadium screaming the top of their lungs, the only way I can describe it I you feel like a gladiator in the coliseum.
I called up Dr. Nassar and said it’s time to meet with the surgeon. Fast forward a few more weeks and here I am laying in bed with my foot elevated and in a cast. Dr. Swords (how cool of a name is that) cut open the side of my foot and shaved down the bone and scraped the scar tissue off of my Achillies tendon. There was no amount of PT that was going to fix bone and this was inevitable. I also found out my cat had cancer this morning and we put her down and my wife’s aunt had a heart attack this week 🙁
I did however mention some good things also happening. In 2011 RunSignUp grew around 330% over 2010 and we are tracking +70% for 2012.
My beautiful wife and I had a beautiful baby boy Chase Jordan Desilets (steeplechase :-). He did however get hospitalized for 6 days with RSV.
I set up a fundraiser to send USA’s number one track fan to the trials, Derek Rubis. The track community raised $1,500 to help him get there. He is also going to be able to interview some of the athletes, which he is pumped about.
I also helped my man Brian Thomas set his fundraiser up for his colon cancer run from Florida to Michigan which they are starting pretty soon. If you would like to donate shoes, money, or gift cards (Meier/Walmart for food and drinks for the road) contact me on Facebook and I can point you in the right direction.
Time to sign off for now…hopefully there will be a post of some cross training soon…no matter how many times we Desilets get knocked down we will always rise up and become stronger than we were before…or was that Rocky 😛