Back to Running

I am injured and have been injured for a few months. As a runner, something always hurts. And if you are distance runner, you know what I mean. And if you are a "senior" runner, it's always something. And you know that runners have a great ability to tolerate some type of pain.

Let me say this, I have been a "casual" runner since my mid-20's. I started running to lose weight, but then I just loved running. I joined a running club and entered fun runs and local 10K races. Then came life— work, marriage and kids. My running became spotty at best.

It wasn't until I turned 49 that I gave serious thought to train for a marathon. I got injured for the first time with shin splint. So I missed the first marathon that I signed up for. I managed to run a 2-man marathon relay a few months after and that was a fantastic experience. It was a cold December race and right after that race I signed up for another marathon. But this time I had my sights on a warm destination– Honolulu the following December.

My Honolulu training went well until the training miles reached 18. Another bout of shin splints. More physical therapy, and ibuprofen. I finished the race with my leg in a compression sleeve and a few pills in my system. I was disappointed that my time was so slow, so I decided to enter another marathon as a redemption race. Another race and another injury! This time I had a stress fracture. You would think that this would slow me down, but I kept running.

I am tolerating this running pain quite well. I enter another redemption race and this time it is a spring marathon in Virginia Beach. That didn't go so well as the temps reached 83 degrees on a boring stretch of beach. But at least I wasn't injured and my time improved by 15 minutes, so I did gain some confidence that my legs could get me through another redemption race in a quicker pace. So this was my new focus. I changed my shoe selection and slowed my training pace for some good training sessions.

I threw out my old prescription ibuprofen and trained on. Each year I had one body part or another make my training interesting. Achilles tendonitis, IT band, iliopsoas syndrome, hamstring strains, and piriformis syndrome. Nothing I can't handle and run through.

My hamstrings started to complain a few years ago when I moved to Indianapolis where training is run on completely flat terrain. I really enjoyed this in the beginning, but quickly realized that a runner never changes up the running muscles and the hamstrings take a hit. Then with my long drives back to Cary, my hamstrings started to scream. It became painful to sit! But I kept on running.

I now live back in Cary and really appreciate all the hills around here. And my training improved and I was a happy runner. I completed my 25th marathon the Myrtle Beach Marathon in February and this was when the "wheels fell off." The race was not a good one as the weather was crappy, so I had to deal with that and my right hamstring couldn't go anymore after mile 20. So I just "scooted" in and finished 20 minutes slower than I had hoped. Ack, now I need to get this fixed.

So now I am less than 30 days from Boston Marathon and I'm still undertrained for this. My therapist doesn't know that I'm back to running. He had me test out my running legs last week for 8 minutes. Ha. 8 minutes! He said I could get back to running with walk breaks. His comment was, "don't go crazy and run 10 miles." Yeah, well, I ran a half marathon the week before and this week I ran 35 miles (with a 15-mile long run). What can I say?

I am trying to balance this out— you know, get healed (PT, stretches, ice, meds, patches, k-taping, etc.) and keep up my running. I am your typical distance runner. I am competitive, too. And it's killing me to go slow and feel old. I plan to push on and get my miles up again and show up at Boston. I'll be tapped, wrapped, and medicated and tolerate this nagging hamstring strain. I will run my 26th marathon at age 63 and be proud to be among the running elite and my running friends.

Call me crazy, but I'm going for it.