A Sign You’re Three Weeks from ‘the Big Day”

… the day after a really great run, you have a blow-out!

I set out for my twenty-miler this morning and was just “off”. My knee felt ‘blocked’ as it sometimes does, where every step is a bit jarring. I still headed out, but it never felt smooth. Around mile 4.5 I stopped to change the volume on my iPhone (I don’t own an iPod) and the first running step sent a shock through my knee. No good! I kept going for a bit, but then decided it was more important to stay healthy and strong than put a number on the books. I ended up walking back a fair amount of the way to the car.

I’m not going to worry too much about what went wrong: the uneven terrain yesterday? the shoes? standing on my feet in boots all last night? I know that we all have off days and today happened to be mine.

I will admit that my knee feeling blocked had a bit of special significance for me today: two days ago my Dad was put on the list for a full knee replacement. We Hills are a healthy brood so I’ve never had to worry about inheriting any health conditions. But this knee thing is worthy of note: my Dad’s had a bad knee for awhile (he had surgery years ago), and I busted my femur and kneecap going on 14 years ago. Everyone warns me that running will destroy my knees: well, I’ve done that once and I suppose I have to expect it will happen again. But I’m not going to not do what I love in anticipation of what may be inevitable..