Beginning Again

Solving the Pain Problem

Almost exactly one year ago I started running again. In April of 2010, my husband Adam and I took a trip back East to visit some close friends in Pennsylvania. Ski season had recently ended, and while I had maintained a certain baseline fitness level, it was time to set free the extra pounds my thighs had taken hostage that winter. In between eating Philly Cheese Steaks I managed to get in a few short runs for the first time in almost three years. Those first few runs, while only three to four miles long, were not easy. At the end of each run, I was red-faced, dripping in sweat, and panting like a dog. While I could partially blame the balmy spring air of eastern Pennsylvania, I was mainly just out of shape.

The main reason I stopped running was due to an unresolved over-use injury that began in the Summer of 2007, which I spent in Anchorage, Alaska. That summer I interned with an environmental legal non-profit after having finished my second year of law school. There is a well-known paved trail in Anchorage called the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail which runs along Knik Arm and Cook Inlet in Anchorage. It is the perfect setting to fall in love (or back in love) with running. A few other interns I met that Summer were avid runners, and they inspired me to get into running. I went to a local running store, got sized up for the type of shoe I needed based on the salesperson's views on my pronation and arch needs and got to running! As increased motivation, I registered for the Mayor's Midnight Sun Marathon Relay with three other interns. My portion of the marathon was only six miles. At that time I found six miles to be rather challenging since I had not been running regularly, and certainly not six miles. After the relay, I decided to keep pushing forward with my mileage, and that was when I ran into trouble. I started getting a sharp pain in the peroneal tendon on my right foot (tendon running under the ankle bone). The pain would begin as a mild irritation, but as I kept running it developed into a sharp stabbing pain. At times, it was so sore that I was unable to walk without pain. For a period of time I biked almost everywhere, even short distances. Long story short, as a student with minimal health insurance coverage, it was hard to go see a doctor in Alaska and not pay through the nose. So I rested when the pain started, but did not see a doctor until returning to law school. When I finally visited the doctor at the student health service office, he said there was nothing wrong with me and left me searching for answers. In the following months, I would try to run a few miles here and there, but each time I did the soreness in my ankle would return. And so I stopped running, turning back to the standard elliptical and bike machines (yawn).

Fast forward to 2010. During the winter months, I began reading "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall. Within the first few chapters of the book I was brimming with curiosity. As I read on, my curiosity turned into optimism, and my optimism turned into action. The (now well-known) theory of "barefoot running" and minimalist shoes was fascinating to me on both an academic and personal level. Instead of going to the extreme and buying Vibram's, I decided to try out the Nike Free's. And it was those Nike Free's that I took with me to Pennsylvania to log my first few miles since 2007. Perhaps the ankle issues I experienced in 2007 were caused by the pronation control/stability running shoes I bought in Anchorage, or perhaps not. So began the Nike Free experiment.

The first few runs I had no pain, no ankle issues, nothing. Of course, perhaps I just had not logged enough miles to cause a flare up. So I kept running, mostly three to four miles at a time, while also continuing my regular cross-training at the gym. In July, I started to run a little farther, logging a few runs of 5 miles and one 7 mile run. I was feeling great--nothing was in my way. I broke down the only significant barrier preventing me from running-pain.


Inspiration

My husband and I moved into our current house in January 2009, but we didn't really begin to meet our neighbors until a year later. One of our neighbors, a couple I will refer to as H & C, are not only great people, but are a large part of the reason I started running longer distances. Both H & C have about 10 years on me, yet each of them are incredibly fit. They each have run several marathons/triathlons, and C has completed an IronMan. The interesting thing was that C had only recently started running long distances. Over several months, listening to them talk about running, races, and training, a light-bulb went off in my head: maybe I could run a marathon, or at least a half marathon. For some idiotic reason, I had always written off the possibility of running really long distances. I resigned myself to the assumption that long distances were for "other people" for real runners-- not me. With a revised vision of my capabilities in hand, I decided to sign up for the November 2010 US Half Marathon in San Francisco. I started reading "Runner's World" magazine and reviewing various Half Marathon training programs and then set off training!


Running Buddy

Another huge factor for my enthusiasm for running is attributable to my running buddy, who I'll just refer to as JP. While I logged most of my miles alone, JP and I would run on average once or twice a week together -- and still do. She also signed up for the US Half Marathon and we ran the race together. After spending months and months running together, I feel like I know JP a great deal better than I did before, and I appreciate her as a friend more than I did before. Sometimes we would log a five-miler while bitching about our day, or planning for ski season, or without talking much at all. Running was no longer just a workout, it was a social engagement -- a healthier version of getting a drink after work (which I also enjoy). JP and I continued running after the US Half, and just ran our second half marathon in March at the Oakland Running Festival.


And that is, in short, the story of how I got back into running. In a matter of 12 months, I went from not running at all, to completing two half marathons and training for my first full marathon in July!