Medal Mondays, 2026 edition
Two medals. Two victories. And one constant reminder that running is more than putting one foot in front of the other. (and a long blog post detailing the whole thing)
My race goals heading into 2026 were clearly defined: run 1:25 at Helderberg to Hudson (H2H) Half, and follow it up with 3:09 at Vermont City Marathon (VCM) – pretty ambitious, considering I hadn’t run a PR atany distance in 5+ years and these would both be massive jumps in performance … yikes!
I built up a pretty good base through December & January, notching a few weeks around 60 miles. I started working with my coach at the end of January and one of the first workouts was a 2 mile time trial. I worked hard – we’re talking max effort, as a time trial should be – to run somewhere around 7:00 pace for 2 miles. Ouch. How could I possibly run 13.1 miles at 30 seconds/mile faster, and 26.2 miles at 10-15 seconds/mile slower? The workouts began, and I was …not crushing them. One weekend I had a long run alternating 3 minute intervals between 6:40 & 7:40 pace – I got through one set, and then it quickly faded to about 7:30 & 9:00 pace for the remainder.
The following weekend (Sunday), I tried the 3 minute intervals again but targeting slightly slower paces, and I nailed it. And then I felt pain in my hip…
- Monday: ran on the Lever, felt that pain again as soon as I got off.
- Tuesday: ran on the roads, abandoned a workout due to snow making the roads almost too slick for easy running, no hip pain … until that evening.
- Wednesday: day off, hip pain all afternoon, couldn’t get comfortable sitting or standing.
- Thursday: before I even got out of bed, my hip was hurting. I was able to get an appointment that morning with an ortho PA who I know and trust. She set me up with an MRA to rule out a stress fracture and assess for a labral tear, and she left me with the parting words “don’t go down the rabbit hole”. What did I do? I went there. I called my mom on the drive home and cried.
I cried because of what a stress fracture here meant. A femoral neck injury is a big deal, so to have that be on the table as a consideration was devastating. (Also, major bummer about my spring races…) Here are a few tidbits about FNSFs…
- Symptoms can be vague and inconsistent, making diagnosis difficult. Pain can be localized to the groin and front of hip, or may be felt more in the back of the hip, or even down the leg (femur = thigh bone). Initially, pain is typically noticed at the end of exercise, but can progress to being felt earlier in the exercise session, as well as at rest. It may be sharp at times, like with activities such as hopping, running, and going up/down stairs – but more often it’s a dull ache.
- Because of the location of symptoms, the first diagnosis is often “hip flexor strain”; however, a hip flexor strain is not a common injury among distance runners, and is more associated with soccer, ice hockey, and sometimes sprinting. Athletes with this diagnosis don’t get better because they’re being treated for an entirely different injury – FNSFs can go misdiagnosed for weeks, or even months, sadly.
- Pain at night or upon waking (before any activity) is a red flag for a bone stress injury, not just at the femoral neck.
- Femoral neck bone injuries have a close relationship with underfueling and low energy availability. This area is rich in trabecular bone, which is highly metabolic and sensitive to inadequate energy intake. Let me be clear:having a femoral neck stress fracture does not automatically mean you have an eating disorder, although those do coexist in some cases.
- The strongest risk factor for a bone stress injury is … a previous bone stress injury.
OK, so take these facts and look back at my case: My pain was vague, started at the end of the runs and then progressed, and on day 3+ was hurting outside of activity. I had been working with a sports dietitian and endurance-oriented physician over the previous few months to address what appeared to be chronic underfueling (maybe perimenopause but that’s a topic for another day, so we went with underfueling). I already had 2 prior bone stress injuries. The chances of a femoral neck bone injury weren’t exactly low. BUT … enter: the labrum.
The labrum is a rubbery ring around the socket of your hip that helps guide your femur through its movements and keep things in place.
- Symptoms can be vague and inconsistent, making diagnosis difficult. Pain can be localized to the groin and front of hip, or into the back of the hip. A “C”-shaped distribution around the hip from front to back is pretty common. There is often a popping, catching or clicking sound or sensation with certain movements; sometimes, it will feel like the leg is giving out.
- Studies have shown rates of labral tears as high as 60% of distance runners, symptomatic and asymptomatic. (in other words: this is pretty common, whether it hurts or not)
- Labral tears can be managed conservatively through mobility and strength training with a physical therapist, or surgically to repair the tear and possibly resurface the joint to make things move more smoothly. As a PT, I’ve worked with athletes on both sides of that with similar outcomes!
That initial ortho visit was on a Thursday morning. Through the weekend, I was (a) feeling sorry for myself and moping around, and (b) in near-constant pain – not horrible, debilitating pain, but enough that made me pretty grumpy. My husband finally told me to get over myself and start cross training because my season wasn’t over yet; in fact, I believe his exact words were “you’re crying at a funeral when you don’t even know if someone has died”. That conversation with Alex was a game changer, and it saved my spring season.
After one full week of no activity, and another week of structured cross training (pool running, lifting, biking – all as tolerated based on my pain), I was feeling better and ready to try running. Fortunately, I purchased the Lever system for my PT practice back in the fall, and I think I got more use out of it this spring than my clients!
My first run back was about 2 miles on a Friday morning, about 75% bodyweight, before sitting in the car for 4 hours to the Indoor Track State meet on Staten Island. So while my hip tolerated the run, it did not like being in the car for that long. The following week, I logged over 30 miles on the Lever and the pain was considerably less than the initial. As soon as I had the MRI results, indicating no fracture and confirming a labral tear, I was given the green light to continue progressing everything as tolerated.
Gradually I transitioned onto the road – starting at a whopping 1.3 miles – and finished out my runs on the Lever. This allowed me to maintain fitness, push the pace a bit on the Lever, and safely reintroduce the higher impact and varied terrain of outdoor vs. the treadmill. I also continued pool running and lifting, of course!
Going into H2H,I had only done one full-length workout and one long run on the road. I had done a few workouts on the Lever, including one that flipped the breaker because I was going too fast for too long (that was a fun confidence boost); I’d done a few combo long runs between road & Lever. I knew 1:25 was out, but I had no real indicators other than that, so figured I’d finish somewhere between 1:28 and 1:40. The race went fine, other than my shoes not being comfortable from about 4 miles on. I finished in 1:35 with a sore heel, a blister, chafed arms (early spring…my arms weren’t ready for tank tops yet!) – but no hip pain!
Onward to VCM, 6 weeks away. This is where things started to get fun. I was feeling good, coming off the injury detour, and it was time to build. I dialed in my nutrition, stayed consistent with strength training, kept 1 day a week on the Lever & tried to maintain 1 day in the pool. I added in the sauna post-run or lift for heat training. Workouts were going well, I was sleeping well, I was feeling happy and proud and confident. Although my original goal of 3:09 was out of reach, I thought I could run between 3:18 and 3:25, with my “B” goal of hitting the 3:30 Boston standard. My brother-in-law John (we call him Johnny) was getting ready for VCM as well, and it was awesome to share the training journey with him – side note: I was also coaching him so I knew all of the ins and outs of his training, and the possibility that he was going to beat me in his first ever marathon!
Fast forward to Memorial Day weekend – and VCM!We had a crew of 10 in Burlington for the weekend, and we did not travel lightly in the carbs department. Alex, Johnny & I scoped out the start/finish area, the biggest hill on the course, and prepped our outfits the night before. Despite the rainy start, it was actually pretty ideal once we got going: 50s and overcast with some sprinkles. I executed a near-perfect race, positive-splitting the second half by only 1 minute, and finished in 3:23:03 (fun fact: my bib number was 322, so I was hoping to “run my bib” - close!). Johnny ran a 4 minutenegative split and finished in 3:34 – talk about a proud coach (& sister) moment!!
The following weekend was the Delightful Run for Women.I’ve never run this race because it usually conflicts with the Charlton 5K, my hometown fave! But this year they were separate, and I convinced all of the Reynolds girls (mom, 2 sisters + 1 sister-in-law, and 3 littles) to do it. My oldest niece, Charlotte, led the charge with a big PR, finishing in 25:35. Next to finish: Emma & her mama (me!) at 29:24 – pretty impressive for those 7-year-old legs, and her first time under 30! Nora & Lauren rounded out the runners in 38:28. Our steadfast walkers (Mom/Nanna/Joanne, Lindsay & Erica) finished together in just under 56:00.
Emma and I had a blast during this race. I don’t know how many times she commented on all the strong women around her/us. Around halfway, she asked me if I thought the top women were close to finishing. I looked down at my watch – we had been running for 15:24 – and said yeah, probably. Well, the winner, Katie Izzo, finished in 15:37, and we had started 14 seconds behind the gun. So Emma wasspot on with her timing – that might have been more impressive than her running. With about 1K to go, we spotted Uncle Johnny as a course marshall, and I asked Emma if she had gas left in the tank for the last ½ mile … she responded by taking off at a pretty fast clip, fast enough that I had to run about 6:00 pace to catch her! She zoomed through the crowds to get to that finish line, where we met Charlotte & got our medals. Milling around after the race, as we went to meet our walkers, we got stopped by news channel 10 for an interview! Emmastole the interview with a fabulous line (you’ll have to watch to find out what it is). And then, we went out for a celebratory breakfast!
Lessons learned (or confirmed/validated) this winter/spring:
- Physical therapists are not immune to injuries, but we know what to do when they happen. After the “pep talk” with my husband on week one, I laid out my rehab plan and talked with my coach about training modifications … just as I would do for any of my clients.
- The Lever system is an excellent tool for injured runners who are cleared to keep running but need some assistance/modification. Come test it out sometime!
- Injuries are frustrating and can force some detours in training – but you usually don’t need to toss the entire season out the window.
- VCM is arguably the most “built for Meg” course I’ve run on in all 15 marathons so far.
- The Run for Women is an awesome, inspiring race/event and it was so cool to flood the streets of Albany with thousands of strong women!
- Family is everything.From the phone call to my mom in tears; to coaching Johnny to a huge PR at H2H and an outstanding 26.2 debut; reflecting on workouts with Alex; and sharing the 5K with the Reynolds girls – my family was with me through it all this spring, and I wouldn’t have it any other way!
What do your medals mean to you? Who helped you earn them? What challenges did you face along the way? How can I support you – as a coach, a running buddy, or a physical therapist?
>> Running of the Green (Emma ran & I volunteered)
>> H2H finish >> VCM finish!
>> the whole crew at VCM! >> Reynolds girls at RFW!