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Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Confessions of an (Injured) Runner

I’m a bad kid and its not because I haven’t blogged in way, way too long.  Want to know why I’m a bad kid?  Because I’m injured - but I did two races on consecutive weekends.

Granted, we’re talking about about a 5k or two, and I walked a good portion of both (no PRs here or anything) but I’m still limited to 15 minutes of walking everyday so I perhaps didn’t make the smartest choice.

I got really excited that I was able to finish those races with minimal pain and I maybe got a little cocky.  I damn near walked my foot off Saturday while I was with my family and guess what - this girl isn’t healed.  

But here’s the thing:  I haven’t been able to resolve this injury for years.  Its been a lot of patching it together and let’s do this race and that one and after two or three something else (all relating back to the same injury) pops up and I end up typing up a blog post like this.  This time is different though.

This time, there wasn’t much of a break between one injury and the next.  I only managed one race, and it wasn’t a very good one.  Today I saw an old woman limping down the sidewalk and all I could think was ‘that’s exactly how I feel.’  I’m not okay with feeling like an old woman who can hardly walk.  I have goals for my life and some of them are things that I’m afraid might have an expiration date and they all require me to be a strong, healthy twenty-something year old woman.

As a result, I’ve made a very difficult decision:  I will not register for anymore races until I am fully healed; until I’ve been given the all clear from my doctor and physical therapist and I’ve regained both the speed and stamina I’ve lost from previous injuries and I’m sure I’m losing right now.  

I don’t know how long this is going to take.  It might be a few months, it might be a year or even longer.  But I think its really the best and safest choice I can make for myself right now.   In the mean time, I’ll still be here, blogging about my progress and I’ll be volunteering at races - starting with Ragnar this weekend!  If you’re running Ragnar Chicago, I’ll be at the finish line, I hope to see you there.  I’ll be cheering on Team Online Relationship and wishing I was out there running with them!

1 comment:

  1. Oh my goodness - that is a huge decision! I'm envious - I don't know that I could hold back from registering for things. Heck I can't even go 5 miles without pain and I keep trying to find a 5K to toss in here and there. This running thing makes us crazy sometimes, doesn't it!?!

    Have fun volunteering. They'll all be very appreciative of you I'm sure!

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