Eyore, keep your spirits high, and winter will pass. You'll be able to do your full program soon, it only feels frustrating now, just coming off the excitement of all the preparation.
Dolce, keep working on that core! That's what they told me would help my ITB, and in the interim I am using the ITB straps. I wore them in the Austin Marathon on Valentine's Day, and did fine.
I promised an update after Austin, and even though I loved the Disney, I think I love Austin even more. For anyone close to Texas, I'm going to quote part of a review I wrote for Austin, which has not been published yet. I hope this is not out of place here, I just want to share a great experience:
"I'm new at this, having only run the Disney the month before, and when I previewed the Austin course on Saturday in the car, the hills were frightening. In the race, they proved to be perfectly 'do-able' even for a flatlander Houstonion. Do not let hills keep you from coming to this race. Come do this event for the great people. What sets this race apart from the others (the Disney and the 5ks I've done) is the crowds in Austin. I've never seen such friendly people who urge you on every step of the way. I lost count of how many people called my name, or of how many people provided snacks and refreshments along the way at their own expense. Orange slices, girl scout cookies, candies, beer and wine were among some of the things Austinites offered the runners. One fellow even offered 'Free drinks and puppies.' This was all in addition to the regular drink stations provided by the organizers. I will do this race again next year just because the people were so extra-nice.
As to the course, I was generally pleased. There was one section where the pavement was pretty bad, but it looked like the road was being repaired. It likely will be done by next race, and also likely that it had not been torn up when the course was laid out. I'm suggesting that this should not be held against the organizers, as it was something out of their control. It was nice that they listened to complaints about the narrow bit at Krebbs road, and extended the southern part of the course to the Ben White road which was plenty wide, even when we had to go around a wheelchair competitor who was struggling up the hill there. There were several points where the marathon route had to share intersections with cross traffic, but there were police directing at those, and I don't know if I was lucky or what, but I only got detained at one of them.
Even with the hills I had a PR going at the halfway point and feel like I would have done really well but for a problem involving Morton's Neuroma. I was able to finish out the event, and am happy with the whole experience. I'd like to commend all the runners I encountered, as every one of them was polite and was aware of their surroundings. Before the split where we lost the half marathoners, it was congested, but I never really felt like I was held up. People knew how to navigate and let faster runners have room.
I'll be happy to come back to Austin for this event every year from now on."
For those that have followed my previous posts, let me explain it was not my neuroma that flared up, it was my lovely Perdita's, and so when I saw that I'd caught her about mile six, I slowed and kept her in sight, following at a respectful distance. She normally outpaces me handily in our practice runs, and although I had the hills (at least 70 and a top to bottom elevation change of over 500 feet), I was "on a tear" and feeling great. I'd done most of my pre-Disney training injured in one way or another, but was mostly healthy for Austin. So anyway, she was keeping at it, though slowing, so I abandoned my race and followed her, just in case. I'm not saying I'd have finished strong, as I did not "do" the race, so I'll never know, at least until next year. She finished Disney with a toe injury and the beginnings of Morton's Neuroma, which were exacerbated by the downhill sections in Austin, and she reported each step was like "stepping on ground glass." I believer her as she is not a quitter. In fact she did finish, and was tenth in her age group. Next year, at 61, I think she can win it. For me, I just plan on trying to muddle through in the middle of my age division. We're going to try one more spring marathon in middlemarch, this time on a flat course near the coast in Seabrook, near Galveston. And in a little less that two weeks, Perdita attacks the Princess back in Disney. If her feet feel a bit better by then, the 13.1 should not cause her as much grief as the whole 26.2.
To anyone reading this who has considered running but is scared of the immensity of the distances, let me state that a year ago, I did not run at all, and when we started walking the three mile perimeter of a local college, we'd run for like ten seconds and walk for three minutes. alternating, and that was more than I wanted to do.

We worked up to a few 5ks in the summer and fall, and then started increasing our distances working towards the Disney. It's not much more than half a year since it was an accomplishment to run one of the sides of the campus without stopping, then running the whole perimeter. To me that felt like a marathon, at the time! So if a 60 year old girl and a 57 year old guy can do it, so can you! Its fun, just keep at it, and keep it fun!
Now, this has rambled on forever, but if anyone has an interest, I may try to post a few pictures from our Disney run. If you can believe it, I carried a camera with me.
