Hanging up the running shoes?

In my very short athletic career, I’ve never experienced a sporting injury. I’ve heard about them - well-known cricketers, footballers and other athletes with injuries that keep them out of action for months. But nothing has ever happend to me.

Except for now.

I’ve got a complicated knee injury that has resulted from the way I’m built, the muscles I’m using that I shouldn’t be, and ones I’m not using that I should be. The result? My knee gets very sore when I’m running.

I’m doing the exercises my physio suggests and trying to take it slowly to remedy the problem. But nothing has improved in the last three weeks or so. All I can do is a bit of walking and jogging in short sessions, and I’m discovering my knee can only take very short intervals of slow - and I mean slow - jogging. Now going slow is not me!

So reality has set in. What do I want? Yes, I love running, and I’d love to do marathons. But no, I don’t want to spend months of special exercises and slow recovery to get back to where I was, only perhaps to get injured again. More importantly, I don’t want to compromise my health for an activity I don’t have to do. It isn’t a career; it’s just for fun. I have to remember that my mobility is so important to me. I don’t want to be prevented from getting out and enjoying myself because I have a bad knee. And I’m a guide dog user. If my knee packs it in, that would be the end of that.

So I’m sitting at the edge of a cliff, wondering whether to jump off into the unknown, or retreat to safety. Is it worth it to push it, or should I stick with what I can do without injury and pain, ie cycling?

So there’s no 8km marathon this weekend. Watch this space for more.

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