A Detour on the "Running" Journey

A not so "funny" thing happened on this Running Journey. The running has stopped. Hopefully it is only a temporary stop but it is a stop none the less and had I used better judgement and common sense it should have stopped sooner than it did. In a previous post I wrote about banging my knee into a trailer hitch and feeling it catch on my next long run enough to where I had to stop and walk until it felt right again. I had some minor issues when we ran the MO Cowbell half marathon but attributed it to the fact that so much of the race was on cement. And then I ran five additional races with soreness in the knee while racing and even while training. I wasn't limping when I walked though and with only a few exceptions didn't limp when I ran. After the Hot Cocoa 5k in Patterson I decided that I should get a doctor's opinion. And then, like a chump, I chose to ignore the advice of R.I.C.E because of the first letter R = rest and I still had additional races that I wanted to run. He scheduled an MRI for me and I ran two additional races before it was scheduled, including a tough trail race with some steep downhill.

Enough of that. I got the MRI and am now waiting for the results but based on what the technician said and the fact that my knee hurts pretty much all the time now I decided not to run my last Double Race this past Sunday and to not train at all until I find out what the MRI and doctor have to say. Of course I'm hoping for a "quick fix" because I've got a lot of races still to run.

The first weekend in December I had a race right in Patterson, it is a very low key local event and I wanted to support it if I could. And, since I already had two races scheduled for the following weekend in Orange County I figured I should do this one that I knew was on a flat, easy course. 

That afternoon I went with my brother in law Gregg to the PAC 12 Championship football game at the San Francisco Forty Niners stadium. We had outstanding seats 30 rows up and we were right above the PAC 12 Network broadcasters so all of the celebrities who were interviewed were very close. They were celebrating the top 50 All Century team and a lot of the players were there including a favorite player of mine John Elway and Teddy Bruschi from the New England Patriots. It was a really good game and I enjoyed watching former Colorado prep athlete Christian McCaffery play for the Stanford Cardinal who defeated USC, Gregg's favorite team and the reason we were at the game. It was a fun event with so much history attached to it.

The next weekend I returned to Laguna Hills to housesit for my nephew Tim so they could attend a baseball tournament. I had already signed up to run a club race in Modesto that I have run the past few years but decided I would find a race in Orange County. I not only found one, I found two. I raced on Saturday at a low key 5k on Huntington Beach. 

And then on Sunday I ran a trail race at Crystal Cove State Park in Laguna Beach. It was a tough race but a fair one. The worst part for my knee and me was the downhill portion it was crazy steep and there were parts that had sand on asphalt which made it necessary for me to run putting my brakes on more than letting go and taking advantage of the downhill like I usually do.

And no Tim, those are not my late Mother's knees! 

So what now? Obviously I've got to take a break from running until further notice. Hopefully it won't be to long of a break. In the meantime I'm going to enjoy the holidays, wrap up another year and celebrate the birth of my new grandson, Donovan Richard Paulo.

"Father Time is Undefeated"

Have you ever felt as though radio announcers were speaking to you? Lately that has been the case with me. A couple of weeks ago I was driving to a race early on a Saturday morning when a sports talk show host was talking about Payton Manning, the quarterback for the Denver Broncos. Manning's game performance has seemingly declined rapidly. His comment really made an impact on me just because of the way I was feeling driving to the race and actually have been feeling for a while. He said, "Old age gets a hold of you and won't let go". While it was a simple comment it struck me as profound simply because I have been feeling that old age has in fact got a hold of me and darn sure isn't letting go.

I mentioned in a prior post that I had banged my knee on a trailer hitch the end of September and that it was still sore and even affecting my gait from time to time but I am able to run through it. Well it's another month later and the knee doesn't seem to be getting worse but it also doesn't seem to be getting better. It's ironic in a sense that it would be a knee bothering me because for years doctors have been surprised that I ran as much as I do and have for so many years with no negative knee issues. So the combination of the sore knee, the coldest November here since 2000 and probably some Seasonal Affect Disorder issues has me wondering how much longer I want to be running and racing. The answer remains at least for now that I want to keep doing it as long as I am able. 

Yesterday I was out early doing errands that I wanted to get done while a) it warmed up some and b) I talked myself into getting out to run and I heard Jim Rome on his show talking about Kobe Bryant's retirement after this season. His comment, "Father Time is undefeated". 

With all that being said, I've got six races scheduled for December so hopefully they will be the motivation to get through another month. For the record I had a decent month of racing in November despite "feeling" old. I even won a chicken for finishing 2nd in the 60+ age group at the Turkey Trot in Turlock. It was good!

With all that being said I am very grateful to still be running and the friends and family that I share running experiences with. In particular my daughter Stacie and son in law Tom and a group of four friends in Colorado, Robert Spell, Gerald Romero, Joe Brazil and Walter Miller. I always try to run at least one race with Tom and one with Stacie when I visit wherever they are living and have had a lot of fun experiences as a result. Additionally Joe comes out once a year or so and we turn his trip into a running adventure with a lot of side activities mixed in. Finally I try to get to Colorado at least once a year for what the five of us call a Reunion Run and those have been fun. Maybe that's part of the reason I've been more frustrated than I should be with the knee I don't want it to get so bad that I have to stop running. Oh well, time will tell and if it does happen then it will just have to be on to a new adventure. In the meantime, I'll just keep running and racing.