16 Weeks To Go

i have signed up for the chicago marathon. last year, injury scaled me back from a marathon to a not-sanctioned-by-physiotherapist half marathon. and i came out of 4 month therapy knowing that i must take my time and be kind to my knees and don't push them to hard. so now i have to get ready for the 26.2 miles by taking longer and longer runs and my knees are giving me a painful run for my money. after a crippling 6 mile run on sunday, i took a few days off and went for three miles yesterday.

oh that run. my knees. so i warmed up at home and did some stretching and walked briskly to the park and stretched some more and then i started running. okay. tried to start running but my knees were all - where do you think you're going? and then at a point my knee buckled and i thought, damn, i haven't even gone 400 metres. but then i thought, if i am going to stagger, i'll stagger my 3 miles. and like half a mile into it i was thinking, i feel like a weigh a tonne, maybe my body is too heavy for my knees. then, as though to prove my point, some skinny and lanky runner sprints past me. i tell myself - pandave, don't let it get to you. don't judge yourself using their yardstick. do what you can. just keep going. it may take you an hour but what you need to do is just do it. by .85 of a mile, the pain was more manageable and the knees had eased up a bit. i no longer felt as though i needed to put some motor oil in them. they allowed me to move them a little. my limp began to finally resemble a run. a very slow run. and that is how it went. until the 3 mile mark. i did it. and then when i felt like going straight home and collapsing, i took the time to do a cool down mile walk before taking my 80 year old knees, one painful step at a time, up to my floor. and THEN i stretched a little. i put ice on the knees and forced myself to sit for a good half hour. and then at last, unable to keep more than one three letter word in my head i obeyed.
bed. bed. bed.