Month 5 - A photo finish, with a twist.

Another month's competition is in the books and this one was CLOSE!!  I'm talking only a few hours.

After such momentum in April I was bound and determined to win May.  Neither one of us had won back to back month's yet, and I wanted to be the first.

Can you say Competitive much? 

I was walking, drinking my water, and doing yard work like a crazy woman.  By the end of the first weekend I was already at 17.48 miles.  The monthly goal was 50.  At that pace it would be a record setting month.

Then I went to my foot doctor appointment on May 6th.  This issue I had been dealing with for what felt like forever, was not improving.  In fact, it was getting worse.  The stabbing pain in my heal was happening more frequently.  To rule out, or confirm, additional issues an ultrasound was done on the same foot.  It showed that the plantar fascia was extremely swollen.  Dr. Foot agreed it was time to fix everything surgically.  There was no way to determine if the fasciitis would improve while the nerve was still constricted.  Since he had to go in to fix the tarsal tunnel (like carpal tunnel, only in the foot) he would fix the fascia at the same time.

Surgery was set for May 14th.

This severely cut into my time to finish the monthly goal of 50 miles.  This took 17 days away from me to get mileage in walking.  I asked Dr. Foot when I would be back up to walking my 2+ miles daily.  He said it would be at least 4-5 weeks.

AHH!!  4-5 WEEKS?!?!  That went halfway into June!  I knew it was for the best, but I was also totally bummed.  I had such momentum going.  I just knew this would set me back.

I had to refocus though.  I had a few days left and I needed to at least hit the goal for May.  I modified my walk path a little and  that consistently gave me another 1/4 mile each day.  I made sure I finished my water each day because I couldn't afford to lose a 1/2 mile.  We had dinner a little later so I could get my time in doing PiYo.  Finally, the Sunday before surgery, hubby and I spent 6 hours doing yard work. 

Sunday evening, May 10th, I sat in the garage for about 45 minutes mentally calculating where I was at.  My total was 48.97 miles.  I needed just a breath over one mile.  Another 32 minutes of yard work.  A trip around the block.  Not much at all, but I was spent.  I knew that I'd be getting a 2.25 mile walk in the next day and thought it would be in time.  I had been chatting with my best friend and I knew approximately where she was, and I felt secure.  There was no way she would be able to catch up to me.

Or so I thought.  Never underestimate the will of a competitive woman.  NEVER.

Monday morning came around, the alarm went off, and I was sore from all the yard work the day before.  I hit snooze.  I knew my walk was early-ish in the morning (10am) and thought I would still be okay and win. 

Nope. 

I was pouring my cup of coffee at 6:45 and I received a text stating "DONE!  50.29" with a picture of the treadmill showing 6 miles.  She literally beat me by 4 hours.  (She ended up reaching 105.93 miles for the month!!)

I went ahead and did my walk that morning.  It was 2.39 miles.  I reached the goal of 50 in record time.  I was proud of that but I was bummed that I couldn't have pushed myself just another 30 minutes the night before.  My husband was shaking his head at us.  He knew we were competitive, but didn't expect us to be quite THAT competitive.

Three days later I had foot surgery.  I will post about that soon.

Here are the totals I was able to achieve for May:

May (goal of 50 miles):

Miles walked: 20.78

Minutes exercised: 1359 = 45.3 miles

Water intake 22/31 days = 3.25 miles

TOTAL: 69.33 miles



June's goal is also 50 miles, but in light of the restrictions I have due to foot surgery, we are not awarding a winner for the month.  We are still doing our best to reach our goals but no prize will be sent.

July, however, has my name all over it.