Pegged

The good parts about Sunday's run?

1. Running through a part of town I don't usually run through.
2. Running with fun company.
3. No knee pain!

The bad part about Sunday's run?

1. The excruciating knee pain that showed up the instant I stopped running.

I met up with two guys from my running group. Jacob and I are planning to run together at the marathon so he thought we should get in one last run together before next Sunday. Due to some email confusion we ended up only running 7 miles instead of the 8 I had planned but that's probably okay.

He'd mapped out a route that took us through some of the prettier areas of town and I think the lively conversation (read: listening to two lawyers debate the merits of mediation) caused us to go a little faster then I would have liked. Try a 9:49 pace instead of a 10:30 pace. Oops.

Thankfully my knee wasn't giving me any issues. Until the last quarter mile when we stopped for a red light. As soon as we paused I could feel it start to tighten up. It held on for the last little bit of the run but once we were fully stopped and starting to the stretch it completely locked up. Painful, tight, and difficult to bend. I limped back to my car like a peg-legged pirate and spent the rest of the day doing an interesting hopping motion to go down stairs.

Of course once I got home I immediately iced and stretched but even that didn't really help. The knee strap, though, made a huge difference and I ended up wearing it for the rest of the day. And, I admit, I did a not-so-smart thing and went bowling with friends that afternoon. The knee didn't give me much issue, though, so I thought all was good.

Fast forward to this morning when walking to the train was one of the more painful things I've experienced. I wasn't wearing my knee strap, though, so maybe that's the difference.

Yes, I am freaking out. Yes, I am pissed. Yes, I am worried. And, yes, I miss running with my running group!! Combine all that with the typical marathon taper paranoia (am I trained well enough? I haven't run enough lately! I'm losing all my fitness!) and some PMS and you have one cranky, anxious gal.

Why oh why couldn't the marathon have been the same day I ran my 18 or my 20 milers? Hell, even the day I ran the Chicago Half Marathon would have been fine. Those days I could have run forever. Now I have this image of me peg-legging it across the finish line. Hey, at least the vision includes a finish line!