Running and Recovery

Before I begin this post- I want to take a moment and offer my sympathies to the runners, organizers, volunteers, and spectators of the Boston Marathon.  I don't understand how anyone could do the terrible thing that those two young men did.  In the face of this adversity, though, the residents of Boston and the running community as a whole has reacted in the best possible way.  I'm pleased to see that these criminals have been brought to justice.  I am proud to live in this great land of ours and to be part of such a wonderful community of runners.  

Now- on to recent local running events.  The last time I blogged about running was immediately following my first full marathon.  If you'll recall, I injured my left knee during this event and even sought the advice of a knee specialist.  I had to lay off of my knee until it felt better and then he said that I could slowly return to running.  I looked at my racing calendar to see what I had coming up and noticed that the Gate River Run- one of my favorite races- was coming up.  I certainly didn't want to miss that.  So, I was very careful in how I proceeded with the recovery runs. 

I decided to enter a 5K in town- the local Fund Run- on the weekend before the Gate so that I could be sure that my knee was going to hold up.  I ran that race with no difficulty and finished in 26.14- which qualified me for first in age group.  This ended up being a pretty fun race.  Quincy and my cousin Jessica both ended up running.  Cassie was home that weekend, so she came too.  We all placed in our age groups.  In addition to this, Jessica brought her little girl Natalie to run the 1-mile race.  Natalie did a great job.  Franklin ran with her- so I guess this makes it his first race as well.  I like running in my hometown because you never know who you're going to run into.  As I was running down one of the roads, I noticed a large white van (my mom) that had stopped to let the runners past.  I waved as I passed.  Cassie was right behind me and she stopped and did a dance.  I was so happy to reach the finish line with no knee problems.  Yay!!!

The next weekend was the Gate River Run 15K.  I LOVE this race.  This and the Peachtree Road Race are probably my two favorite.  I traveled to Jacksonville with Quincy and Maura.  We arrived in plenty of time to pick up our race numbers, stretch, and hit the port-a-potty before the start.  As usual, there were a large number of participants in this race.  I finished in 1:24:58.

Next up, the Swamp Run 10K.  This is an off-road course through the Okefenokee Swamp.  I've run this race several times, and the course is hit-or-miss.  One year the dirt wasn't packed down very well and I spent the whole race worried about twisting my ankle.  Another year the mosquitos were horrible.  This year was actually a little chilly.  I started the race strong, but didn't finish that way.  At mile 4 my other knee (the right one) started hurting.  All I could think as I was running is "Are you kidding me?"  I finished the race in 56.05, which is not what I was hoping for.  This race awards the top 5 in each age group, so I ended up getting a medal for fourth place.  Quincy also placed in her age group.

I didn't go to the doctor for the new knee because all he had told me to do last time was stay off it for awhile and then start back slowly with the running. I have been doing some research on how I can avoid these problems in the future, and I am implementing some of the things that I've learned.  After taking over two weeks off, I started training again.  Last weekend I ran in the SCA 5K and finished in 26.08 (3rd in age group) with NO knee pain whatsoever.  I've also run all this week with no pain.  I hope this continues.  I hate being sidelined.