Saucony XC BLOGS - Magdalena Lewy Boulet

First off, I'd like to thank everyone for all their emails, letters and wishes before and after the race. I read them all and they all put a smile on my face.

As most of you know, the race did not exactly end up the way I dreamed it would. When I arrived in the Olympic Village I slammed my knee pretty hard on a metal part of the arm of a seat in front of me as I was getting off a shuttle. It was pretty swollen for a few days, but after some anti-inflammatories and plenty of ice, the swelling went down and I regained most of my range of motion in the joint. I was able to do a workout and plenty of easy running on it, so well in fact that I actually stopped taking the anti-inflammatory medication. When I woke up the morning of my race, it had stiffened up again, but I had hoped that it would loosen up a few miles into the race, which it had done on some of my runs earlier. It never crossed my mind that I would not finish the race…it is the Olympics and I was going to go for it. Unfortunately, it only got worse the further I ran and I was forced to stop running at the 20k mark, just short of half way. This was the most difficult decision to make and an outcome that I will have to live with until the day I can redeem myself.

To say that I'm disappointed doesn't begin to describe how I feel. There's nothing worse than being in great racing shape and having the opportunity taken away because of one tiny little accident. It's a very helpless feeling. There is very little that anyone can say or do at this point to make this feeling go away and I don't know what else I can do now but cry a bit, then move on to the next challenge.

The marathon is a humbling race and it has humbled me during the most important time of my running career.I have learned a ton from this experience and most of all I have been reminded not to forget how magnificent the journey has been up to this point. Why did the injury happen a couple days after the greatest workout I have had in my entire running career? Who knows? But in time, I'll know. “Like the marathon journey unfolds before me, so do the circumstances of Life.”

Jack Daniels reminded me today that “ very often something really good comes out of sad times; it's just a matter of finding it, or letting it find you.”For anyone who doesn't understand the lows in running… they don't know sport.

Now that I’ve had some time to reflect on my experience at the Olympics, I will look at the opportunities that I gained instead of the opportunity that I lost.I met some incredible athletes from all over the world.I had a chance to spend some quality time with John Hays (Lopez Lomong’s coach) and Gags and talk about coaching.I enjoyed breakfast and dinner with Lagat, Lomong, Fam, Shalane her husband and her coach John Cook.I roomed in a suite with LoLo Johns and watched track events on TV with one of my favorite female sprinters Lauren Williams.I shared a taxi ride into town with Stephanie Brown Trafton who later won a gold medal in women’s discus.On my flight from the training camp in Dalian, I set next to our new USATF CEO Doug Logan, a sharp man with absolute passion for our sport, with whom I had a chance to converse about CAL and people we mutually know. Most of all, I had a true pleasure getting to know Blake Russell and her husband Jon. I am very happy that Blake had such a great race. She is an amazing athlete and she ran a very smart race. I am also very sorry that Deena did not get a chance to show the world how fit she was, but as she told me on the sweep up shuttle, “the fitness is there and we will get our chance to do something special with it soon.”All of these memories, good or bad, will remain with me forever and have enriched me not only as an athlete, but also as an individual.

I will get myself well and come back ready to tackle the next big thing!

Until next time…

Chewy Lewy