I’ve had problems with my knees since junior high, following the year that I grew 5 inches really fast. They may or may not be related, but I had sporadic pain for about 2 years following that growth spurt. After being pain free for several years, I had a couple of accidents in the Air Force, one for each knee, and had issues with the left one for a few years. That one eventually landed me in physical therapy where they determined there was too much play in patella, and gave me an exercise plan to strengthen the muscle around my knee. It helped, but a long walk would still end in pain on the inside of my knee. But then I got fat, and that quit happening…oddly. 😉

So, with that background, a couple of weeks ago, I ran 4.5 miles – the longest I’ve run ever. Either that night or next day, I noticed a pain in my left knee on the outside, especially walking downstairs. But it cleared up after a couple of days, and I had no problem with it until the bug dance run. It hasn’t hurt while running since then, but has hurt either soon after or up to a day later. It is probably iliotibial band syndrome, and so I am taking a break from running this week to rest and heal. It could be the slant of the road, the hills (I keep saying hills are killing me), or it could be from rolling my ankle a couple times when I have to run on the shoulder because of traffic. But whatever the cause, I’ll be biking this week instead of running.

I ran the Patriot 5K 4th of July. I was joined by 4 other Tribe members, each of whom smoked me. lol But I expected to be smoked, and my goal was not to keep up with them, but to run the entire 5K without walking. I have to admit, I was ready to quit before I got off campus and onto the street. It was terribly demoralizing to get passed by runners with strollers. And I was totally dreading the first turn around because I knew it was uphill almost the whole way to the second turn around. But I got a little morale boost after the first turnaround because while I was running really slow, there was a butt-ton of people ahead of me walking. But then as I passed where the route went on/off campus, I saw the first 2 runners coming in. I looked at my watch and it was just over 15 min. Really?!?! Who runs a 5k in 16 minutes?!?! Well, 16-17 year old kids on the track team, that’s who. Anyway, I finally made it to the second turn around, and by the time I passed the roundabout and turned back onto campus, I felt like I was booking it. The reflux hit right before the final turn before the finish and I was sure I would puke, but I managed not to, and ran my best 5K to date: chip time was 35:58. My watch time was 36:10, and the gun time was 36:17. I didn’t come in last, except among the Tribe members, but like I said, that was expected because they run fast. 🙂

And for today’s earworm: