I am an Injured Runner
If you were told to stop doing your favourite thing, what would you do?
As someone who has been active all my life, I am no stranger to injuries. I have had my fair share of sprains, pulls, twists, and bruises, but only twice in my life have I had an injury bad enough that I had to actually stop running. I can say with confidence that the worst part of an injury is not the physical pain that it puts you in, but the mental games it will play when you have to take a break from your sport. In many cases, however, this is the only way to truly recover.
As of yesterday, August 30th, 2018, I am officially in injury recovery mode.
A little backstory:
In May I started to consider training for a fall 2018 marathon, and I decided to be prudent and see a physiotherapist about a minor pain on my ankle - "just to be safe". After a full assessment, I was told that a combination of lateral hypermobility in my ankles and poor motor control in my right hip was causing an overcharge on my ankles (translation: pain). I was given some easy stretches and stability exercises to do, and after about a month I felt like I was well on my way to recovery.
Fast forward 3 months to this past Sunday (Sunday Runday!), when my craving for distance won me over and I laced up for a long run. My favourite kind of run. My raison d'être as a runner. About 8km in, that familiar ache in my ankle came back. I pushed through it. I finished the run proud of the distance but silently wondering if I had made a mistake. By Monday morning, I knew I had. The pain was back.
I saw my physiotherapist again, determined to fix myself, to be capable of running farther, stronger. I want to be running half marathons again, maybe another marathon. Honestly, I was terrified at what she was going to tell me to do. I knew what she was going to tell me to do.
"You will never progress if you keep running without fixing the issue."
Her advice? Stop running for the next month. Work on strengthening the parts that are weak and failing, and allow my body to heal. To really heal.
I immediately thought of all of the reasons I wouldn't do that. I couldn't follow that advice. I would do anything, but I wouldn’t stop running.
It took a moment, but I started to reflect and think about about why I was there and what my goals were. My ultimate goal has always been to run injury free for the rest of my life. Suddenly, it felt foolish to ignore the advice I was given. I nearly cried as I came to terms with the reality of what I had to do. I felt like I was abandoning my sport, my passion.
One month is both an eternity and a small drop in the ocean that is my entire life. Today marks day 1 of my no running streak.