Interestingly, I was reading my first post after my marathon in 2015, and I had the same problem with walking in my first run (I walked the last half mile of that run). Although back then it was my feet that hurt, and my right one in particular. I ended up taking almost 2 weeks off to heal. One day, I remember it pretty clearly, my foot hurt so bad and I was walking to my bedroom, suddenly I heard a loud pop in my foot and then it felt fine. I don't exactly know what was wrong, but obviously something in my foot was misaligned (or something) and needed to pop back into place. I wish it was that easy with my knee this time around . . .
Sunday I woke up to snow.
Anyway, Sunday morning I was sitting on the couch watching the snow, and noticed it was still snowing (or maybe snowing again?). Chris and I had decided that since I wasn't doing a long long run, I would run after grocery shopping but with the time change I was up earlier than normal on Sunday and I was starting to itch for a run. I still hadn't eaten anything, so I decided I'd eat something and drink some water and see if I could get it all in me by 8am so I could run at 8:30. I was successful and was getting dressed when Chris finally woke up. I told him I was going to go run in the snow and we'd shop afterwards.
I had been debating running 8 miles, but I decided to do 5 because of the snow. Well, I started running my regular 5 mile route, and on one of the early downhills I had a twinge in my knee. Oh, yeah, I forgot about my knee. It was okay, so I kept running but thought I'd cut it short if I needed to. By the time I was at a mile and a half I knew I wouldn't be able to do 5 miles, I got to 2 and a half miles and had to walk. My knee was really bothering me. I walked the half mile home pretty disappointed. It didn't feel like I had run, and I was just discouraged. I'd like to say I got over it, but I didn't.
I got an email from someone regarding the Tri-Cities Marathon I ran last Sunday. Remember the post I wrote last week about it? In the post I wrote about the guy that was acting crazy, well, the email I got over the weekend discussed him. I'm going to copy and paste it here, I just found the whole story crazy and a little sad.
Disturbance at our 2017 TC Marathon
Some of you may have come in contact with a registered runner at this year’s Tri-City Marathon that caused quite a disturbance at several places along the course. Or you may have seen his profane and incoherent rant of a “review” on our Facebook page. If you witnessed his behavior or saw his FB rant, it is obvious that this person has no credibility. However, I take a lot of pride in our 3RRR club and events and I want to set the record straight.
The story starts the day before the race at packet pickup. Our race director talked with this man and though he seemed somewhat peculiar, he did not appear to be a threat to anyone. In his discussion, this person was very forthcoming that he was convicted of a felony and formerly abused illegal drugs. On race morning he exhibited more strange behavior, including a liberal use of duct tape, among other things, but again none of this behavior appeared to be dangerous. And then the race started.
The race started in very dense fog, in some cases visibility was not much more than 20 feet. One of our women club members, competing in her first serious marathon, found herself running with this man running directly behind her. When he started making sexually harassing comments to her, it was very stressful, especially since with the fog it felt like she was alone with this strange man. She was glad to catch up with another woman running on a relay team, but the man behind them just doubled down on the sexually harassing comments. When they got to the relay exchange point and the other woman completed her run, our marathon runner was so stressed by the man trailing them that she hid in a porta-potty for several minutes in hopes that he would get far enough ahead of her so she would not have to deal with him any more.
While on the course, spectators witnessed this man yelling and cursing at other runners, claiming they were trying to “cut him off.” Our marathon runner caught up and passed the disturbed man on the Cable Bridge heading back over to Pasco and noted that he was yelling at the cars on the way over the bridge. So much so that the cars were honking back at him.
Then came the aid station at mile 16 on the Pasco side of the Cable Bridge. A number of runners complained to the aid station volunteers that one of the runners in the race was yelling and cursing at other runners. Aid station workers noticed this man kicking over cones near the aid station. When he arrived he complained the cars on the bridge were trying to kill him (from his yelling and threatening the cars) and then threatened to kick over the aid station table and dump all the water/sports drink on the ground. He did not make good on his threat, but his behavior was threatening enough for our aid station crew to call the police. The disturbed man was taken into custody somewhere around mile 18 on the course.
After the police removed him from the race course, they did not have enough to hold him or charge him, so they needed to take him back to his car. His car was parked at the Shilo Inn and this is where he caused a disturbance at the awards ceremony. He once again started in with a profane and incoherent rant at the race director, who calmly let him know that he would address his concerns after the award ceremony was over. When the race director went to find him for a discussion, he had already left the area.
Those are the facts of what happened and I wanted you to know. I want to make two points here. First, I want to congratulate our marathon race director for a good job of putting on the event and the calm and professional manner in which he dealt with this disturbed individual. I am not qualified to determine whether this disturbed man suffers from mental illness or this was a drug issue, though the opinion of nearly everyone that came in contact with him was that he was “on something.” This was our marathon race director’s first foray into race directing and he did a great job of dealing with this situation and avoided letting it escalate. I’ve been directing races for over 35 years and have never had to deal with something like this.
Secondly, as I was collecting information to write this up, I was also getting the news about the tragedy in New York City regarding the terrorist truck driver on the bike path. Obviously, there is no comparing what happened in New York to our situation with the disturbed individual. But it reminded me that at our 3RRR events we are not immune to strange behavior or actions by others. Just as in other parts of every day life, we need to keep alert and be aware of what’s going on around us. Even as we are competing in our local events. That may mean taking out your earbuds once in a while if something looks or sounds off. And then let someone know…just like the runners did at our mile 16 aid station.
In closing, I know how hard you work to get ready for a marathon and the effort you put forth during the race itself. To have that sacred time subverted by some disturbed individual while you are trying to put forth your best effort is a terrible shame. I am saddened that some of you were affected by this person. Know that he will not be allowed to register for any 3RRR events in the future.
I've been working in the mental health field for 7+ years, and even on Saturday when I saw this guy at the packet pickup and he wasn't doing much but saying hi to people in line, I thought that he had some mental health issues. I'm no expert, but I truly believe that was his issue, and I thought multiple times during my run that maybe running helped him with whatever mental health issues he had.
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Hopefully your knee is feeling better!!!!
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