"Congrats! Now get healthy"...

Funny. You finish a half marathon in your best time. All after
having trained since early summer. Your training schedule demands 5
or 6 days a week ... sometimes getting up to a total of over 90km/week .... You shed extra weight, tone muscles and increase your
cardiovascular fitness level to a new high. You sweat all the
impurities out of your system. You've fine-tuned your diet so that
you balance your nutritional requirements of fats-protiens-carbohydrates, etc. You get in tune with running and feel your "groove" ... You feel almost like an efficient machine ... meanwhile, all of your friends (or at least mine) can't even understand why someone would go out and run 20km at night after working a 10-hour day at the office. You are in shape.

One would easily label you as "Healthy".

Upon qualifying for New York City ... I posted the news on my Facebook wall. An immediate response came from Jim Vance who I had been in touch with after having met here Barcelona last summer when he came with his wife and some friends to follow the Tour de France. His comment was direct ... "Congrats! Now get healthy!" ... Jim was aware that I was "struggling" with new knee pain. However, it seemed ironic that feeling so "healthy" I needed to "get healthy"

...but he was right. Being "fit" or "in shape" doesn't necessarily mean being "healthy" ... So I began to care for my knee ... and things got better. I pampered it, took lots of "Vitamin I" (as my brother calls Ibuprofen) and used anti-inflammatory gels. I rested and learned how to stretch. For the first time since I began running (over 20 years ago) I took the proper time ... perhaps even more ... to stretch. Before and after running. Even on "off days". I uncovered the magic of an essential tool that I had been disregarding for all the time that I have been running ....stretching (more on that in a later post). The pain slowly disappeared, but the psychological effects remained ... I had to work through the fear of feeling the knee pain again as I tried to ramp up my running again ... finally, it came to a "do or die" point and the Barcelona Marathon rolled around.

Concerned but not worried, I was convinced that my knee had healed. The race was a [personal] success ... My knee felt great and didn't bother me in the least bit. Post-race recovery was fine as well ... During a few short recovery runs, I felt slight bruising on my kneecap (similar to the pain I had during training season) ... and a strange sensation similar to having a string lightly tied across my knee .... It wasn't uncomfortable, but it was there ... and I kept wondering ....

Then I got the link to my photos from the organization ... and one of the shots showed the exact thing that I was feeling (attached). I won't say that it's a bad thing, because I don't know. I just know that it's a weird-looking thing ... and it keeps me concerned. I want to "Get Healthy" for NYC. So, I decided to schedule a visit with a sports traumatologist ... just to put it to rest (I'm sure). I'm on my way there in 30mins ... to tell him that "I had a pain that I no longer have" .... strange .... I'm confident that he'll give me the "green light" ... but I wanted to clear up all doubts ... I'll let you know how it goes.

Gotta run!...