Part II: In the Doldrums….

A week into the injury, I was getting really worried so visited the massage therapist I’d seen in the past- unfortunately, the therapy didn’t seem to have the same miraculous effects as before. I tried running the next day and couldn’t even get past the block – limped my way back home and tried to convince myself that I had to be patient and rest it out.  Time was running out though. The upcoming weekend was the 18 mile run, and to keep up with the schedule, I had to heal fast. On Day 9 I tried a 2-mile run and walked almost half of it, tried another 3-miles on Day 11 & tried to run most of it. It was painful all the way and my knee had swollen up by the time I got home. I was getting rather stressed by this point.  More than the physical pain, the injury was gnawing at my mental peace. I was irritable and confused –dug up a dizzying amount of (often conflicting) information on the net about running injuries, hoping to find a miracle stretch.

Meanwhile it was also high time in our program to begin fundraising – which really is the bigger purpose behind running at all. For me that is what makes this program so special –the fact that you undertake a challenging personal task and use it to create awareness about a larger cause. The relationship was so symbiotic  in my mind that the inability to run any more, made it very difficult to initiate the fundraising effort.  Still defiant to run I showed up for the 18-mile weekend run on Day 14. I somehow completed a painful 7 miles and by the end was certain that I needed intervention. Looked up a sports therapy place close by and went in for an evaluation on Day 16. There began my journey down the road of endless calls to my PCP (who was on vacation), her assistant, the specialist’s office and an overwhelming exasperation with the needlessly complex way healthcare works here! As if I was not already drained by the effort, the new therapist recommended that I see an orthopedist to rule out any bone injuries! I must confess that by this time I had reached the brink of my patience and good humor. It felt as if I was just going round in circles. The therapist was unable to provide a definitive diagnosis and asked me to lay off running for a while. Having lost more than 2 weeks of training time in an already tight schedule was not doing wonders for my faith in being ready and able to run the marathon. Besides the knee and shin were not feeling better either.. there was persistent pain and swelling that would go away and reappear. Nonetheless an appointment with the orthopedist was made – and I continued to try shorter runs without much success.

 

Day 20: The orthopedist ruled out a fracture (again!!) or compartment syndrome (that my therapist somehow thought I might have) and asked me to forget about running this year. His diagnosis was that due to multiple and persistent piling of small injuries after each run, my left leg had inflamed to a point that I simply needed to let it heal completely. Running would commence only in small increments and with the marathon creeping up so soon there just wasn’t enough time. The drive back from his clinic was a sad one—I had till now been harboring hope against all odds that I could still run the marathon. In the ensuing two days it finally dawned upon me that I might not realistically be able to accomplish the goal towards which I had been training for the past few months. It was definitely disappointing. After a day of brooding and during yet another bout of Abhi trying to lift my spirits, we got talking about aiming for a half-marathon if not the full this year. This would also allow me to canvass for the charities and be able to raise funds. It being the last day for registering for the Lowell Half-Marathon, I went ahead and reserved my spot. However, as I limped about our one-bed apartment from one room to the next, how I was going to be able to run the 13.1 miles seemed very dubious.