Since I started running, way back in the local Hershey youth track meets, I’ve been running after numbers. Each distance, each event was defined by a winning time, or later when it was a clear I wasn’t going to be an All-American, a personal record.
I’m highly motivated by goals and for much of my running career that goal has been to go faster. To lower those PRs. Ask any serious runner, even weekend warrior, and they will be able to tell you their PRs across distances.
My knee has been feeling a lot better in the last two weeks. So much better than I’m nervous my body is screwing with me and it’s all going to come crashing down at any moment and leave me hobbling around again and finally understanding the merits of a cane.
I don’t know what’s made the difference, which is what has me nervous, but also hopeful that at least something is working. I’m not sure if it’s the three times a week I’m doing a 20 minute simple strength routine, the daily foam rolling or the extra stretching. Maybe it’s just time and rest. Or voodoo.
It’s likely a combination of all of them. But probably voodoo.
Things keep arriving in the mail for me from the Chicago Marathon and it’s bumming me out. With the extra five minutes from a new age group, I really thought I had a shot at a BQ time this year. If the Garmin expected finished times are to be believed, I definitely had a shot.
But I won’t be running and won’t be shooting for a PR.
I do however finally have some answers on my knee pain and it’s left me wondering if I’ll ever run a marathon again.
