Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Running Injuries
I think I have a running injury. I say, "I think" because I am not certain about it. Plus, I'm good at practicing denial and avoidance. I don't want to believe I have a running injury.
I was dressed, ready and psyched for my scheduled 7-mile run today. I walked about one minute for a warm-up and then, began to run. Except it wasn't really running. I would call it an Igor-sort-of-sideways lope. That's because I was compensating for the intense pain I experienced in my right knee just then. Yow!!
I stopped and walked again thinking that I just needed to warm up some more, but that didn't help either. There seems to be some kind of sharp pain just behind my kneecap at the moment of foot strike. I've never had this happen to me before. I could have cried if I hadn't been in shock.
On my way home, I stopped by my local Running Center. I knew the runners there would understand and they'd be able to give me some sound advice. My friends at the Running Center didn't let me down. Taimi commiserated with me and Tony came out and asked about where it hurt and how it happened. He gave me a flier all about "Runner's Knee." I haven't read it entirely yet. I stopped reading when the prognosis didn't look so good (keeping up with my denial tendencies).
The thing is, by the time I walked into the store my knee wasn't hurting anymore. I was hurting more on the inside, perplexed and disappointed, the words, "What happened?" bouncing around in my head. It was nice to know I had a place to go where the people understood how I felt and cared enough to talk me through some possibilities. Most runners have experienced similar disappointing injuries in the past and these people really helped me through this one. It's nice to know we have a place supporting our local runners like that.
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