In the course of training for my first full marathon, The Nike Women’s Marathon, last October, I dealt with a lot of knee pain. Some from Runner’s Knee, which was pretty easily helped by wearing a neoprene sleeve, and a lot of pain from IT Band Syndrome which has not gotten better at all.
After the whole process of seeing my primary care, being referred to Orthopedics, being mistakenly told I’d torn my meniscus, then being told they had no idea what was wrong and shipped off to Physical Therapy, I was not thrilled. The PT department said to keep doing massages, foam rolling and to do clams. But, the truth is, even when doing those things it wasn’t getting better.
After the San Diego Rock n’ Roll half, I took a lot of time off from running, mostly because it really hurt to run. I kept hoping if I gave it more time, did more of the thera-band exercises I found on Runner’s World’s website, if i just kept foam rolling and massaging and icing it would just not hurt and I would still have time to train for my second Nike Women’s Marathon. Â You know, the one where I was planning to make the course my bitch?
Well, last Sunday, I went to the beach to attempt 14 miles (I knew I wouldn’t make it the full 14 miles but wanted to do as much as possible anyway) and made it just under one mile before the knee started feeling not good. So, I turned around and headed home, by a slightly different route so all the people I had just run past wouldn’t realize the crazy girl with her Camelbak had only gone a mile.
So, that morning I made a decision. I will not be running the Nike Women’s Marathon this year. I’m just not healed enough and I knew I definitely didn’t want to walk it, or walk a half. I realized it was actually time to figure out how to fix this.
Rewind to about five years ago or so, I was working out with a personal trainer named Pip. Well, she and I have stayed sort of in touch over the years, and on Monday she sent me a message saying she’d been thinking about me and wanted to touch base and see how I was doing.
Perfect timing, right? On Wednesday, I went to see her, and she immediately realized how completely out of balance I’ve become and is going to work with me to create a plan to fix it. It’s not going to be cheap, and it’s not going to happen overnight, but I think I just have to make it work.
In addition to that, I’m going to see a chiropractor on Monday just to get adjusted and hopefully help get everything set in place.
No NWM 12 for me, no running for a while actually, but I’ll be getting back in the pool and working with Pip probably twice a week. Add to that one to two days a week of dance because as of this coming Tuesday I am one month away from my TCRG exam in Atlanta. I am scared.
In other news, I turned 30 yesterday! Yay 30 and cupcakes and all you can eat Korean BBQ!
 The kittehs do NOT like the balloons. They are highly suspicious.
Yay for a plan! Not being able to do the marathon sucks, but taking the steps to feel better is a great step. I’m excited for you!
Also, YAY UPDATE!!!!!!
Yeah, like Rachael said, I’m so sorry about the disappointment about the NWM.
But the fact that you’re still going to work with Pip and do all this other stuff, on top of your job and all the other stuff you do, still makes you AMAZING! Seriously, you are inspiring 
Good luck with it all!!