I had a "toothache" at work and left early to run with my girlfriends. We planned to do 8 but it started to get a bit dark so we turned around shortly after 3.5 to head back to the car. My ITB was a dull but doable pain for the first 3 or so miles. After that it became excruciating. I've played "real" sports my entire life and have had injuries but nothing like this. It was horrible. Horrible. We were taking it easy, running 5/1's (run 5 minutes, walk 1 minute) and that was going well until my knee gave. I stuck with the plan the whole time because I am horrible and have a "suck it up" mentality that isn't always a good thing. That 1 minute seemed to go by quicker and quicker. My blessed and lovely friend Laura tried to keep me deep in conversation in order to not think about the pain. It didn't work, but I appreciated her effort. When we got back to the parking lot and were talking for a few minutes, my knee got VERY stiff from just standing around. I could hardly walk the 20 feet to the car. It was pathetic. Then, I had a party to go to. Which meant I had to go shower. Getting out of the car and climbing the steps might've been one of the worst things in my life. I've never given birth to a child, so I will rank it right up there with that kind of pain. Horrible. Needless to say, I wasn't moving well last night. When I got back home I did the roller which moved me to tears. I slept horrible, about 4 hours. This morning I hobbled down the stairs at 5:45 to go work Mountain Mist, a local 50k that Nevels was running. It was a slow and labored walk, but I really forced myself to put some weight on my knee. I took 3 Advil (unusual for me; I generally don't take any medicine) to dull the pain. My knee did well at the race. I hobbled around and really began to walk seemingly normal on it although it still hurt. Nevels did not run. PANSY!!! He had some lame excuse about being sick. He was there to cheer on his buds and it was good to chat with him about Lady Gaga (yes, that is just for you Burt) and some guys wicked awesome tattoos; they were insane. The race was a lot of fun and I had a good time with my girlfriends. Anyways, that is my long, drawn-out knee pain injury story. I am disappointed in myself for being such a baby over it. I am normally not like this at all. It just hurts. Plain and simple. I'll definitely be taking a few days off. I plan to do the roller this week and maybe try to get in 10 or so on Saturday. Hopefully I'll be back up to par by then. | 