Six years ago today I attempted my first half marathon and was swept at the 8 mile mark. Five years ago yesterday, I finished my second half marathon at the Princess Half. I cried as I crossed the finish line. It had been a long year of training and trying to become a runner. I was excited I had accomplished my goal and a little said because Mac was on the other side of the world while I did it. The achievements I made in 2012 at Tink and Princess set me up to go on and complete 16 half marathons between January 2012 and May of 2016.
Unfortunately, three weeks after completing that 16th half marathon, I fell and severely sprained my ankle. I spent two months letting my ankle recover, but as my ankle healed, my knee hurt more and more. I could barely walk five minutes before it would lock up and hurt so badly I wanted to cry. In September, I began a battle to figure out what was wrong with my knee and try to solve the problem. It took four months to finally get someone to send me for an mri and then refer me to an orthopedic doctor so that something could be done about it. On February 16th, I had a knee scope surgery to try to correct some of the damage caused by the fall and subsequent months of walking on a injury knee.
Recovering from surgery has been complicated because Mac is once again deployed and I am on my own. A friend took me to surgery and stayed with me the night after but she had her own husband and pup to get back to so I was quickly on my own after the surgery. Fortunately, the surgery isn't too invasive and weight bearing soon after is encouraged. However, I am sure I have been getting around and doing more than most so soon after. The dogs still wanted to be fed and to go outside every 5 minutes it seemed. I still needed groceries and to just get out of the house every now and then. My knee has been sore and hurting some and I wasn't sure what was normal and what was because I was moving around maybe more than I should. I've been hoping that this will lead to me being able to start working out again and to hopefully soon be able to run again. Everything seemed to be going pretty well until Saturday. In a lot of ways, I felt like I was back to where I was before surgery. I think that it was mostly the cold front coming through but it made me worry if I was really getting better.
Yesterday afternoon, I was sitting at home and opened Pokemon Go just to see if there was anything interesting in the neighborhood. Since the game came out, if there was something close by that I really wanted, I would get in the car and drive around to find it because walking around the neighborhood to find it just hurt too much. This time however, I decided to see if I could just walk around the block to find what I was looking for. I put on my sneakers and headed outside, unsure how far I would be able to walk comfortably. As I finished my single lap around the block and headed back inside, I started to cry. My knee was sore but it was nothing compared to the pain I experienced before the surgery. I even jogged a few steps just to see how it felt and it gave me hope. I know I am not 100% yet but the fact that I could tell it is actually healing I was a little overwhelmed.
The last nine months have been pretty dark. The longer I was injured, the more depressed I became. I am back to where I started with everything. My weight is higher again and I haven't ran since Tinker Bell half last May. When I am cleared to start working out, I will be starting over nearly completely. I have way too much weight to lose again and I can't even think about running a 5K right now, much less a half marathon but I know, with time, I will be able to do it again.
I have a long way to go, but I am determined to do it.
One step at a time...
