Team World Vision Training - 9 weeks to go

It was a mixed bag of training for Twin Cities Marathon this week. I logged just over 40 miles, and the week went well up until the end of my run on Thursday.

After my feet had both slowly healed the past couple years, this week I suffered a setback. During a 13 mile run on Thursday, the front of my right ankle started hurting. It wasn’t bad, and it didn’t slow me down — more of an annoyance than an injury. Still, it was tender after the run, so I decided to take a couple days to rest it and hopefully let it heal.

Then, I did something dumb. After taking Friday and Saturday off, my ankle was feeling decent. It wasn’t 100% better, but at least 80%. Here’s where I made a rookie (or should be rookie) mistake. I headed out on what I figured would be a 4 - 5 mile run, but at the three mile mark my ankle was fine, so I decided to make it an eight mile run.

Of course, five miles in my ankle started hurting again, and afterward it was feeling pretty sore. This morning it feels a little better, so I’m hoping after a few days off it clears up and I’m back running pain-free. Being who I am and always thinking of “what-ifs,” I’m seeing a couple of ways this could go:

1. Best Case Scenerio: The ankle clears up after 3 - 4 days, and I’m back to normal running.

2. OK Scenerio: The ankle hurts longer and I have to wait until it feels good enough to run, and after running limited mileage it clears up.

3. Not So Great Scenerio: The ankle keeps hurting too much to run, and I have to go in and get it looked at. I get good news and get back to running in a short amount of time.

4. Worst Scenerio: I go in to get the ankle looked at, and I get bad news, and I have to take a good amount of time off and either have to run/walk the marathon or have to miss it altogether.

So that’s the running front. On the fundraising for Team World Wision front, things are going much better. I’m getting close to my goal of $50 per mile, and have been blown away by the generosity of friends and family. I’m just over $200 from meeting my goal and am optimistic about meeting that goal before the marathon.

Fact this week:

841 million people are without basic water access. This includes people who are traveling more than 30 minutes to access water and people without access to clean water.

You can help provide live-giving water to communities without basic access to clean water. A donation of $50 brings clean water to one person, but a donation of any amount helps.

Check out my fundraising page: Nathan Leckband - World Vision, or you can donate through my Facebook fundraiser: Nathan’s Fundraiser.