Take good care of yourself: Part 1 "The mistake"

Something I learned the hard way, unfortunately, is that you should always take good care of yourself.  In fact, it took me almost a year to really figure this out.  Today, I am starting to trend in the right direction and am hoping it will pay off in the long run.  Okay enough of the ambiguity - time to give the background.

On June 26, 2010, I ran my very first marathon at the Seattle Rock n' Roll Marathon.  I had done plenty of long distance running before (starting at age 10) and I even ran a fast half marathon on November 21, 2009 smashing my goal time (1:51:42).  I felt more than ready for this race.  I trained properly, peaked properly, followed the workouts like I should, and was mentally ready to get out there and do well.  So I started well and kept on a pace that I knew I could finish, knowing that I like to run negative splits (each mile gets faster) and that I could try and pull off a good time.

At around mile 11, I felt a pain in my left knee.  I ignored it initially because like most pains I have experienced while running, they go away and never come back.  It was still hurting at around mile 14, but the pain was much stronger.  I was so determined to keep running (w/o stopping) that I actually limped the entire rest of the race.  That's right, I kept my left leg completely straight and used my right leg like normal... not a good scenario.

At mile 23, a paramedic decided to ask me if I was okay (the obvious answer being "no"), and I of course just said "yes I'm fine".  She wasn't persuaded and asked if I wanted to go to their station, to which I was like "I only have 3.2 miles left I'm just going to finish" and kept on running.  Right after that, I saw someone nearby completely passed out and going into an ambulance and I realized I had made the right decision; there were other people who needed medical attention way more than I did.

In the end, I hobbled some sort of sprint and finished with a time of 4:30:00... and considering I spent over half of the race limping that wasn't too bad.  Right?  But that didn't matter - I got this super cool medal for finishing, and some dignity knowing that I finished one of my hugest lifetime goals (set that goal at age 13).  

Here is the medal more zoomed in.

Now, as you can imagine, the pain is searing through me but I was so happy for finishing that I just didn't notice.  I wound up walking around Pike's Market until I just couldn't take the pain anymore and it was impossible to take another step without uncontrollable tears. I slowly got to my car, drove home, took a bath, and slept.

The aftermath?  I couldn't bend my leg for 2 weeks, or use stairs for an entire month... oops.  I eventually went to the doctor and it turns out I got Illiotibial Band Syndrome (ITBS).  Sadly, I stopped running for months with some spurts of 5Ks just to see if I was capable of running without pain.  Even today, I can't run without pain, and FINALLY decided I should do something about it (because I can't not run anymore).

Being a runner, the healing process intrigues me especially when I have a vested interest in running again.  So, if you are oh so curious to see how much time and effort my "kneehab" will take, just wait until my next blog :)