Ah, tapering, how I have so looked forward to you. I have longed for this time for months now. But alas, our time together is short and tainted by an annoying injury to my knee.
It was on my last long run. I had planned to run 21 to 23 miles and picked Forest Park (Portland, OR) as my spot. I haven’t done much hill work and I though that if I took it slow and easy that it would be a great last run. I was excited for my last long run and was strangely looking forward to it. At mile marker zero I felt good and started my pre-run warm-up walk. I walk for at least 10 minutes at the start of my long runs. You may be able to break into a gentle jog from the get go, but unless its race day – no way for me. I felt good, no worries. I began my slow jog, a pace I planned on maintaining throughout my entire run. Somewhere in the 12-13 minute mile pace. Things were going fine. Now I should state that Forest Park at mile marker zero starts out as an incline (the Leaf Erickson trail) and continues to be an incline the whole damn way to mile marker 8 (as far as I have ever gone on that trail). At mile four and curious sensation started in my right knee, right outside of the knee I should say. I felt a weird loose numbing pain. The pain was nothing really to write home about, so I continued my run. By mile marker 8, the annoying “loose” feeling had turned to a full blown pain and forced me to start a shuffling walk back to mile marker zero (now only 8 miles away). I called my running coach and she informed me to call it a day, of which I reluctantly agreed.
This annoying pain refusesd to go away! What the hell? I have rested my knee (which meant –no running for a solid week) and still it continuesd to be bothersome. Well tonight no more. In less than two weeks is my race and I’ll be damned if a wonky knee is going to keep me down! I will run, damn it!
Please look for my next post about knee replacement surgery and the high cost of pride.
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