An update on our plans for the Eugene Half

Postponing, for now

Good afternoon/evening, friends!

I wish I had better news to share with you, but I need to give you a heads-up on the Eugene Half Marathon in Oregon next month, the race we’ve been planning as a meetup event just like we did at the Richmond (Va.) Half Marathon last fall.

I hate to have to tell you this, but unfortunately I won’t be able to make it to the race. I’ve been wrestling with this decision for nearly all of the past week; finally I’ve realized I need to be honest with myself that taking as much time off from running as I did at the start of the year — thanks to a bout with plantar fasciitis — put me a lot further behind than I hoped it would.

(I had to lay off from running for about two months, and didn’t start back until the beginning of March.)

While I am able to run again now — thankfully! — I’m only running about 3 to 4 miles at a time. I’m also still experiencing a fair amount of pain, both during my runs and afterward, which makes me think that 13 miles probably isn’t something I should push for just yet.

I’m hugely, hugely bummed about this. I was really excited to meet up with you all in Eugene, to run with you, to get together before the race and after, and to see a part of the country I’ve never seen before. And I hate to disappoint any of you who’ve signed up, expecting me to be there. That part, especially, I’m seriously bummed about.

But I have the feeling that this is one of those “discretion is the better part of valor” moments when I need to listen to what my feet are telling me, rather than risk injuring them further right now.

If you signed up to run it, I hope you can accept my apology and know that we’ll do this again (hopefully in the fall). Our race meetup is something I hope to make an annual, or even twice annual, event for us — we’ll just have to wait a little longer for that to become a reality.

Again, thanks in advance for listening, and I hope you can understand if you’ve been training for and planning on the race. It still will be an amazing event, I know, and I hope to get there to run it someday (maybe next year!).

In the meantime, keep running and let me know how your training is going — as well as how your spring is going, and where your running is taking you.

Your friend,

— Terrell