king of pain

I think being a runner means living in constant fear of WHAT WAS THAT TWINGE??

You are running along and are suddenly aware that your left hip is a bit tight....OMG is that my illiotal band tightening up?? You are getting out of bed in the morning and find that your right foot is aching in a particular spot...OMG is that plantar fasciitis? You are sitting at your desk at work for a few hours and discover, upon rising, a sharp pain localized at the top of your left shin...OMG is that a stress fracture?

That last little scenario was me on Tuesday. An off day for running, I was at work, arose from my desk, and had this strange, sharp pain. The spot was tender to touch. All day, into the evening, there this pain was, lurking. At first, I just thought it was, well, a little pain. Just an ache. Any one - runner or not - gets these from time to time, right? And then...the more It lingered, the more I thought. I thought about Tracey and her stress fracture and 6 weeks of no running. I thought, I've just come off of two weeks of rest. I thought about my running shoes that have about 235 miles on them and I'm not ready to fork over another $135 for a new pair.

I tried to ignore the hot spot, but something like this just looms large in your mind, like some huge lurking monster smirking in the corner. I went to bed, thinking, It will be gone in the morning. And when I awoke on Wednesday, THERE IT WAS! Horror! I got out of bed, worried.

I went about my morning routine - congratulating Claire on another night dry, making Glenn's lunch, eating my Kashi, getting breakfast for the girls. And then, I realized.

It was gone!

No more pain. Heck, the spot wasn't even tender.

So, what was this all about? Did I imagine it? Am I some kind of runner's version of a hypochondriac, only imagining worst case scenarios of the running kind? Or was this just what it appears, simply an ache, a pain that will occur from time to time because, let's face it, running does put more pounding stress on the body than just sitting in front of your TV for hours?

Whatever it is, I'll just keep running. Which I did later on Wednesday, running 4 miles in the hot sun, along the rolling farm roads, passing a group of cows who actually moo'ed at me, and seeing only one piece of roadkill.