Where do you draw the line between doing thing that are crazy, or irrational, and just plain stupid? Well, I would be the wrong person to ask because I have done a lot of things that most people would consider dumb or just plain nuts but I really don’t see it that way.
There really wasn’t much to brag about after completing the LA marathon in 2004. I completed a marathon but in return my toenails were all purple, my legs felt like they had been ran over by a car several times, and my ego was severely bruised. So, I set out with mission to run the LA marathon the year after in 2005. I improved my time a little but I was not satisfied with the overall performance so I ran again the race again in 2006 and I was lucky enough to be a part of 26 runner’s who were sponsored by Saucony. I met one of the other Saucony runner’s who just happened to be a legacy runner. As a novice runner, I had no idea what that really was. She explained that the legacy runners were a group of 200 or so runners who had ran and completed every LA Marathon since its inauguration. Regardless of how slow or how fast they ran the race, this is an impressive feat. Unless I went back in time, being a legacy runner is something I do not qualify for but I decided to start my own legacy or tradition. I vowed to run the LA marathon every year until my body says it just cannot go anymore. To some, this may sound like no big deal but when you have a goal, you have to see that goal to the end, otherwise why set goals, why make promises, and why dream.
I’m less than 37 days away from trying to complete my 8th consecutive LA marathon and it may prove to be my toughest one so far. In October after completing the Point Mugu trail race I essentially had to shelf my running because of some knee pain. I experienced the same pain here and there throughout the years but it normally just goes away but this time, it just lingered on and on. I knew the marathon was getting closer and closer so I set out to try to run a few miles here and there but I really couldn’t manage much. I was having some serious pains the day after my runs so it caused me to really delay my training. I started physical therapy to help strengthen my legs and to learn some new stretching techniques and even though I began to feel like I was ready to get back out the door and pick up my running mileage, the resounding knee pain caused me to be hesitant and I began to worry that something was seriously wrong but in the back of my mind, I knew some way, somehow, I would be in the marathon, even if I had to rent a wheelchair.
I returned to the sports medicine doctor at the end of January and updated him on my status and though there were no true signs of ligament damage from the strength test he gave me, the pain in my knee persisted but the puzzling part was that it was not my knee that has been really bothering me. It was on the outside of my knee, right on the bone. We initially chalked up the injury to an ITB band injury which is common for runner but I pretty much did all the stretching and exercise in physical therapy to help deal with that. The sports med doc had no choice but to send me to get an MRI. I was still was not that concerned because I’ve had several MRI’s but they never really reveal anything and it really didn’t matter what the doc said, I was prepared to delay any major type treatment or procedures that would endanger my chances to be at the start line of the race in March.
When I went back to the doc Tuesday, he let me know there were no tears at all in my knee and my knee looked pretty healthy except for a little wear and tear which is normal but then he paused to tell me there was one possibility as to where the pain in my knee was coming from. I have three tiny ganglion cysts that were present right in the area I’ve been complaining about. What pissed me off was that the cysts were present back in 2001 when I had an MRI before having a knee surgery from a basketball injury. Nonetheless, the cysts are too tiny to drain which is something you can do but if you’ve ever had a cyst before, they fill back up with fluid and you have to do back in to drain them again. Though the cysts are small, they are likely the source of the pain I have been experiencing on and off for the last five years.
The next step for me is to see another sports med doc for a second opinion and to get his opinion on the course of action. My first desire is to have the cysts removed because I had a cyst on my wrist when I was in the 7th grade and it was quite painful. Whenever it was drained, it seemed to come right back in a week so it had to be surgically removed and I’ve had no problems since then.
You can call me crazy but the show must still go on. Come March 20th, I will be lined up at the LA Marathon, looking to run my 8th consecutive race and continuing my goal towards completing the race every year. What will you be doing?
Athletes compete, we don’t watch…
