If you love something, set it free…If it comes back it was meant to be
On May 29th, after 31 awesome miles in the Portland forest, I took off my shoe and saw every runner’s nightmare—swelling and bruising. I knew right away, that I would be taking some time off of running. I didn’t know how much and I was very worried about it.
That was the day that I set running free.
During the next 20 days I had and Xray and an MRI, took tons of ibuprofen, fiendishly iced my foot, and dove headfirst into modified crossfit (NO running or jumping) workouts. It was all I could do to stay sane. I weighed myself all the time and slowly watched the scale creep up towards my self imposed “danger zone.”
And during that time, I missed running a lot. I missed the friends that I run with. I missed the wind and the rain and the heat and the cold. I missed the sounds of birds in the trees and gravel under my feet. I even missed the metallic tasting dry mouth that you get after a particularly hard effort.
It took 20 days of listening to my doctor and my foot—and ignoring my wife and my heart—for running to come back to me.
But Saturday morning, boy did it come back. 6 miles in 51 minutes. 6 miles of bliss. 6 miles of great conversations, cold breezes, misty rain drops, and hard breathing. If I were more religious, I’d say it was 6 miles of heaven.
It was hard to let running go, even for 20 days. But I did and now I’m healthy, rested and excited to get back into it.
I guess it was meant to be.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Aww, dude, that is beautiful. I love the quote, more so for life in general, for people in your life, and yes, for what you love to do as well. Happy you’re back. I went for a 6M hike on trails on Sunday, saw all the folks from local running group, stopped by chatting, and even that was better than 2 previous weeks of insanity. I got 10 more days to recover – I got things to do:)
I’m with you Olga…It looks like I’m going from an easy 6 miler to a pressure packed 18 miler…pacing Pam from Forest Hill to Green Gate on Saturday afternoon
It seems that I’ve got things to do as well. Hope I don’t let her down!
You are there for me so there is no way to “let me down.” Besides it is only 16 miles and it is all downhill.
Don’t believe evil Pam on “all downhill”, that section has more ups than you want! Not to mention, it’s 2 extra miles grinder to Green gate, what makes it 18, indeed:)
You, guys, have fun! Time to push out there, on the river section! Make it count, suffer some, fly!
she’s just trying to make me feel better olga. I’ll be fine though, either way. I’m looking forward to it!
So glad you’re on the mend! I hate being sidelined by injuries; I had 5 weeks off last year for surgery, and was literally glaring at other non-injured runners by the end!
Welcome back to the fold!! I’ve been only truly “running” for two years now and have avoided any injury so far. I think I will be crushed when it inevitably happens. I’ll be sure to visit this post again when that day comes.
Thanks!
Great to hear that your foot is feeling better Mac, we need you well rested for Ragnar!
All kidding aside, I know how difficult it is to “set your running free”. I had to do the same thing when I had my ITB issues earlier this year. But now I’m past that and running pain free. As hard as it was at the time, it’s totally worth it now.
The real test comes this weekend when I run 18 miles at Western States with Pam. Wish me injury free!