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I went to the oral surgeon last week who explained to me my options with the tooth - implant, bridge, denture. The only one he does is the implant but for "$4,000", that's more than what the 'other' type of implants cost. I told him, no, I will not be going that route. I would rather live with the gap and lisp than buy a tooth for that much. Regardless of which way I went, once the tooth is yanked, I have to wait a few months for the bone and gums to heal before anything can be done. Funny that my dentist expected this guy to pull the tooth and put in the screw for the implant when I hadn't even decided on what I was going to do. How he doesn't know you need to wait for everything to heal, I don't know. Last Saturday the tooth finally fell out on its own but I could put it back in like a fake one - great for parties and grossing out the kids.
Anyways, I had the tooth extracted (love the sound it makes when it's pulled from the bone) yesterday so now have to explain to everyone I see how I did it, of course embellishing a bit to make it somewhat interesting. I usually throw in that I have scurvy or need to drink more milk.

I finally admitted to coach Ian and myself that I have more than just shin splint pain now in the right leg. I saw Dr. Prassad at UBC on Monday and he figures I have a stress fracture. I have a bone scan on the 30th to verify his diagnosis. Very frustrating that it's in the other leg now and he recommended two weeks of no running. Hmmm. Miwok in ten days, how is that going to work? Well now I have to decide do I do the race and risk getting even more injured and waiting that much longer to recover? Do I wait until closer to the race to see if I feel better? Do I go down and watch and feel serious envy that I can't run this thing? Do I cut out now so someone else can have my spot? It's totally my fault as I thought I could advil and ice my way through it. Had I told Ian earlier we could have backed off the schedule and nipped it in the bud. Live and learn. Each day I wake up I hope it to feel better and it so far it's a bit better so you never know. I for sure could fight my way through the race but am pretty sure I'd pay for it. It didn't help I did a 34 mile run on Saturday then the Sun Run on Sunday with the Coast Mountain Fleet Feet corporate team (1st in the transportation category, 8th team overall thank you). I felt crappy in the 34 mile run but awesome in the 10k the next day. I was breathing easy through the first 5k still doing sub-6 minute miles. A couple little rises didn't slow me down at all and I had a great kick at the end. I guess all those @#$%! 20 minute intervals from Ian paid off after all!!

So I have a few decisions to make. I should save myself for Bighorn in June and Spartathlon in September. It's not like Miwok has been on my 'to do' list, it just fell on a good spot for training for the 100 mile run. I was still stoked to do it, though.