There are moments of time where it all seems to be going your way. It may not all be perfect but there is a definite theme of "yeah, it's all good" weaving through everything you do. And then it happens, just when nature decides you've taken this easy ride for granted a hairpin turn is thrown in your path and you just happen to be speeding.
That hairpin turn was today for me.
My knee pain is back again.
My knee pain showed up last April when I was in Seattle for a girl's weekend and Mariners game. I was out for my long run around beautiful Lake Union when it hit at about mile 7. A sharp, precise pain located just underneath the bottom left area of my right patella. I tried to run through it but the pain was so intense I just couldn't continue, I had to walk the three miles or so back to my hotel room in my own silent misery and pain. Once I got back home I saw the orthopedist, he claimed he couldn't see anything "wrong" with the knee, just that the way my knee came from the factory was a bit weird because it didn't track properly. He prescribed physical therapy and said that should do the trick.
The first PT I saw was a nice girl fresh out of college, that should have set off the warning bells. I saw her twice a week for the next month and a half with no real improvement to speak of. I was on a strict no running regime. Needless to say I was frustrated. I had my half Ironman the second week of June and I had to be "fixed" by then, I just had to be.
Any guesses as to if I was fixed or not? Nobody? None? Really? Okay, fine, party poopers.
I wasn't fixed. I had to walk the entire 13.1 miles. The funny part is I walked it just half an hour longer than I can run it. Hysterical isn't it. I finished though and that was the big thing for me at that point. Simply finishing was enough for me then.
After that race I changed PTs, I found a guy at Therapeutic Associates whose abilities I felt confident in, even if he was more than 10 years younger than me. After a few months the pain was gone. Now it's back.
Now what?
Now? Now I'm the bug.
