Running with endurance. (Part II)

18 weeks of training!  400 miles of running.  26.2 miles of racing.  How did we get here?  Sometimes it feels like a dream, but reality tells me it isn’t.  I know I felt the excitement of my first training run.  I know I felt the pain of the onset of runner’s knee.  I know I felt the depression as I thought on many occasions that I might not make it to race day much less finish the race.  I know I felt that nervous energy course through my veins with just one week to go.  I felt it all.  Yet it feels like a dream.  Can a person really run 26.2 miles without stopping? 

I’ve become a professional at diagnosing injuries via the Internet.  I’ve self-prescribed glucosamine based on a Runner’s World blog.  I downloaded an app for injury prevention stretches.  I’ve researched insoles to remedy foot pain.  And I’ve searched the Internet for stores that would carry the coveted KT Tape in hopes that I could make this old knee of mine hold out until race day.  Now before you worry too much about my capabilities of self-diagnosing…I have also seen my doctor on more occasions than I would like to admit.  I believe I visited him 3 or 4 times in a two week period just to make sure I wasn’t missing something bigger.  Like a torn meniscus.  I even obtained a prescription for an MRI which confirmed that what I had was simply Runner’s Knee.  The infamous Runner’s Knee.

When I tell people I’m running a marathon, the most common question is “Doesn’t that hurt your joints?”  Well…yeah!  Of course my joints hurt.  You’d have to be Ironman to run 20 miles and not complain of aching joints.  To a certain extent, my body complains with minor aches and twitches during every run whether it’s a 3 mile run or a 15 mile run.  It’s much like an old car that sputters and whines in objection but can still get you to work and back.

The second most common question is “Don’t you get bored?”  Running is the one point in the day when I can let thoughts enter and leave my head at will.  I have the freedom to let my mind think about anything.  Sometimes I think about the day ahead of me.  Sometimes I think about my kids, my husband and my family at large.  Sometimes I pray.  And sometimes I wonder at how that old man can manage to walk his fourteen little dogs without their leashes getting all tangled.  Then I’m back to thinking about my run.  How fast am I going now?  How much longer do I have?  There’s that weird guy with the dogs again.  Hmmm.  What a beautiful crisp morning it is!  It can be quite liberating – this freedom of thought.

Now with only 9 days until race day, my thoughts are turning to the beautiful vistas of Big Sur.  I just hope that I’ll be able to truly enjoy them while I’m huffing and puffing up the 2 mile incline that is Hurricane Point.