I don't remember when - probably about a month or so ago - I ran the Race for the Roses Half marathon in Portland. I did really good, taking about 30-40 minutes off my previous best time. Near the end - the last half mile or so my right knee really started hurting, but I kept going, knowing that my time was really good - for me - and I finished and knew that something had happened, but also figured that like all of my previous hurts, this would eventually clear up. It hurt so bad, I could barely get up the stairs to visit my Aunt Peg at OHSU after the run.
I took a few off days - messing with my mileage goal for the year and tried to go for another run on Friday, before heading over to the coast with the girl scouts. Unfortunately, I didn't get but 20 minutes into my run and my knee was still really sore. Same thing on Saturday. Here's the trick though. I can walk without any pain at all.
So then I came home and took some more off days. Thinking it's got to get better. Then came another Saturday. I needed to do a 20 mile training run/walk to stay on track for the Seattle Rock-n-Roll marathon in June. Again I was only able to do about 6 miles before the pain became intolerable and I had to pretty much walk the next 11 miles before I called it quits.
I think the next thing was the first of May. Bloomsday. I was headed back to where it all started. I knew I couldn't hike my way over, so Jessica and I shopped our way over instead and crammed for the Spelling Bee the next weekend. I had again mostly rested my knee. No significant running. I pushed really hard at Bloomsday and finished much better than last year. Not as fast as I could have done if my knee wasn't killing me for most of the race, but I went for it. When I could barely walk at the end, it should have been a clue that something was wrong.
Next we went to DC. Walked a million miles - or 20 or so - and not a lot of pain, but I was not able to do the half marathon I was hoping to do in Virginia. I knew that with the pain of going up and down steps, trying to do a half was a bad idea and we still had a lot of things to see on Sunday before coming home.
So this past week, recovering from Jet lag, I got in a few small run/walks both outside and at the Y. No significant pain, but I was not pushing very hard or far.
That leads to Yesterday. I needed to get in 22-23 miles - again to stay on track with my training goals. And again, I did not get very far, before I should have said this isn't working. But I'm stubborn and stupid that way, and decided I would at least walk the miles. And at mile 13 or so, I thought I was finally going to have to call Jim to come resuce me on the trail. It hurt really bad. And that's when I cried. Because I know I can no longer continue to train for a full marathon in June. Let me re-phrase that. I can train to walk - but I really want to train to run. I did get in almost 19 miles, but I gave up on the last 4 mile lap.
I'm not sure where to even go from here. I have a lot of things I want to do this summer. It's not worth permanent damage. It's not worth not being able to do the other half marathons I've paid for. It's not worth letting my Portland to Coast team down. And If I get this thing healed and I can still train for Portland.
So how do I fix the knee. I don't even know what kind of doctor to go see. Do I just go to my regular doctor - who has never even taken my blood pressure - I had to get a knew doctor last year?
I'll just add that I have really tried hard to follwothe training. Not trying to over train. I really beleive something happened in that last half mile at the Roses run. I have cross trained and taken the rest days. It's very frustrating. Infuriating really.
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