Kristin Rides

I went on a run this past Saturday–I didn’t post about it because I was too frustrated.

I went to Forest Park. Wildwood. It was fairly cold, windy, a bit rainy, but I didn’t care, because I hadn’t run on a trail in a long time. I love the freedom from the treadmill: savoring the sweet pine-y air, sprinting through mud puddles, dashing through what others try to step around, scaring hikers, listening to the singing birds. I love hauling ass up the steep slopes and leaping over roots, jumping off of rocks and narrowly avoiding slipping on the clay-mud. It’s exhilerating.

Unfortunately, despite all of my careful attempts at getting back into running, after about 3-4 miles, my knee reminded me of its presence. I was already on my way back, and ended up going 5 miles, but the last 2 were all about pain management. I’ve weight-lifted, I’ve stretched, I’ve had massage, I’ve had my IT Band electrocuted, I do yoga daily, I use the foam roller religiously, I RICE, I run in short intervals…I’ve taken every person’s advice on this planet for IT Band pain and guess what? Nothing works.  I hate to give up–I’ve been trying to return to running since the 2005 PDX marathon. I’ve even had 2 PTs. But after frustrating attempt after frustrating attempt with nothing working, what can I possibly do? Will I ever run pain-free again? I’m beginning to think the answer to that is “No”.

When I talk to other runners who deal with this, it definitely sounds pretty chronic. No one ever says “Oh yeah, I had that once.” Once you have IT Band pain, you will always have it. What’s funny is that when Runner’s World has their little stupid 1 paragraph How-to-Avoid-Injury articles, they always just say “oh do these 2 stretches, RICE, take 2 weeks off and you’ll be dandy.” What they mean to say is “Having Illolital Band pain is a lot like being an alcoholic. Even if you manage to kick it, if you’re not careful, it will rear it’s ugly head again. It’s something you will have to deal with and think about and treat on a daily basis for the rest of your running career. Uh, good luck with that, keep running and buying this magazine!”

I had a goal to crush my previous year’s Shamrock 5K time of 24 mins. But that seems a rather tenuous goal at this point. I have to say I’m seriously thinking about giving it up. What does this all mean for triathlons? Isn’t this site called “Run bike swim”? Well, I may still do them. I will just have to walk the run or do speed intervals as I do in my training. But I will have to stick to tri’s where the running leg is under 6 miles for sure. I would do anything to run free again, but I have to say I’m completely defeated at this point. I may still run a bit here or there, but in my heart I’ll know that I’ll never really be a runner again. I will now wallow in self pity, thank you.