A Passion for Running

It’s more than a bit ironic that, at a moment in time where I find myself in the best shape of my life, I also find myself …injured.

I do believe I’ve acquired a stress fracture in my right foot. To be precise, in the area around my right foot’s first metatarsal.

I first noticed a bit of pain there on Sunday. It got worse during yesterday’s long run and it was rather painful when I woke up this morning.

This ain’t no little niggley – it’s a full blown injury less than two months from my first scheduled marathon but, oddly, I am not depressed or even overly upset about the setback. In fact, I am fairly relaxed and calm about it.

“Yes”, I understand that I won’t be running for probably two weeks at minimum. And “yes”, I also understand that the race I’ve worked so hard to get to may be in jeopardy but …BUT, I still feel an inner peace and confidence I’ve never had in my running prior to this winter. The question is, what is the source of this peace and confidence?

The first thing that comes to mind is that all my eggs are not in one basket – I never viewed May 20th as my only opportunity to race.

Second, I’m calm because I’ve had almost three years since my last injury to learn how to be calm and I know that “this too shall pass”.

Third, I’ve got Andrew in my corner. I’m constantly amazed at how the coach takes these things in stride. This injury is certainly “bad news” to him but certainly not insurmountable bad news. In fact, my hope was lifted even higher this morning after reading his assessment that the rest I am now forced to take brings with it some serious upside. And he speaks from experience having had this injury a few times himself.

Fourth, I didn’t get injured making a “stupid mistake” (my current motto is “not to make any stupid mistakes”) so I can live with myself. This injury is a result of not foreseeing the adaptation my body would need to re-acquaint itself with running on bare pavement (versus snow covered pavement). In hindsight, I would have liked to reduce my mileage a bit. However, lacking the experience I now have, I was unable to see the situation coming. So be it – I’ll know better next spring.

Fifth, this’ll heal.

Sixth, I still believe in what I’m doing. I believe in the Pose Method and I believe in the Lydiard mileage I’ve been building up to because – injury aside – I’ve never been as strong as I am now. One injury does not make or break a runner.

Seventh, as Andrew has reminded me, the training I’ve done is not wasted. I’d have to be off running a long time to lose the level of base fitness I now have.

So, here I am coming off one of the best 20 milers of my life, more fit than I’ve ever been, 16 pounds lighter, ready, confident and smiling about whatever will come next.

After all, what have I really lost? A bit of time? A bit of time to accomplish a long-term goal? BAH!

And what have I gained? Fitness, a sense of purpose and of being able to accomplish things I did not think possible before. Oh, and one more lesson added to the many others life has offered up. That’s what.

This is life!