hello running shoes!

Good morning everyone! Today I have some great news for y’all. But first, let’s review the back story to this (which most of you know, but it can’t hurt to cover it again)

I think most of you know that I’ve been suffering a hip injury that has left me sidelined from running and most exercise since March. I haven’t been able to run or do anything vigorous other than biking or swimming since April. At the end of June, I was given clearance to start the elliptical, building my way to power walking and eventually jogging.

However, I wasn’t really given a timeline for how long this would all take. So I’ve been kind of listening to my body and playing it by ear, trying to give my body plenty of rest and let my tendon heal. If I didn’t let it heal properly, or started back too soon – there was a good chance I would reinjure and then be stuck resting for even longer.

I made a goal in August to run at least once that month. I stated my motivation was the Oktoberfest 5K that we have here in DFW every year. This race was my very first 5K two years ago, and I also ran this race last year shortly after I injured myself. I really wanted to run this race this year and it’s definitely the perfect race for me to make a comeback with!

Running didn’t happen in August, which I was okay with. I made a lot of progress with the elliptical and power walking on the treadmill during August, but I never felt my body was 100% ready for running. I would still have a lot of tenderness when walking on the treadmill and found myself walking super slow and was really sore. It was pretty disheartening, but I just kept pushing.

Then I started school, my exercise became way less frequent. I went through a 2 week period of not working out (formally) at all. This is actually been pretty normal for me this summer, since I have been exercise restricted. However, I really worried I was going to backpedal my rehab during this process.

Last year’s Oktoberfest 5K

But, my worries did not matter! That time off plus the time I spent rehabbing during August paid off. Suddenly we were one week out from Oktoberfest and I was feeling really confident about running at the race. I was feeling better about my injury and wasn’t having any discomfort sleeping on that side of my body anymore. While walking on the treadmill was still making me very tender, I started to consider that maybe it was the treadmill that was just aggravating my hip and maybe moving outside would be completely different?

And then a few days before the race, I was trying to talk myself into trying running. I was super nervous, emotional, excited, happy, scared – basically a rollercoaster of emotions every second. The day before the race I started getting so emotional that I would tear up at the thought of running. I talked to my cousin, who just reminded me to be positive and just try to run.

The night before the race I put a heating pad on my hip to loosen the muscles. The morning of the race, as I drove the 45 minutes there – I again placed a heating pad on my hip and I kept tearing up and even crying at one point, thinking about how wonderful it would be if I could jog across the finish line. Prior to the race I did my PT stretches, walked around and made sure I did a proper warm up.

As the race started, I walked. I know this course like the back of my hand, as this was my 4th time to run a race here. The course is a big out and back with a huge hill in the middle. You run up the hill, then down – then you u-turn and run back up the hill and down the other side.

I decided to walk the entire first 1.5 miles until I was up and down the hill. Then I would try to run, until I got back to the hill where I would walk up and back down.

I was so nervous guys, just so nervous. I was SPEED walking, at a 16 or 17 minute pace the entire first 1.5 miles. That is SO fast compared to my other walking speeds in the 3 5Ks I walked this summer. In those races I was hovering around the 20 minute mile pace the entire race. I am convinced now that I need to focus on being outside rather than on the treadmill. I can barely walk at a 24 minute mile pace on the treadmill without getting tender, but yet I was walking 16-17 minute miles (pretty much the fastest I’ve ever walked) with no discomfort in this race.

I made it to the other side of the hill and questioned whether I should try to run. I guess Sarah saw me around this time coming back and said my face looked pissed. I really was just trying to figure out what to do. But I channeled my cousin’s words in my head to be positive and decided to go for it.

And then I just started jogging. The next thing I knew, I had jogged about 4-5 steps. I expected my hip to hurt instantly and I would have to stop. But it didn’t. Strangely enough, my non-injured hip was hurting on the outside part next to my butt. I really have no idea why, but my entire body was so stiff that I’m sure every part of my body was confused. I haven’t moved my legs more than a walk since April.

The first jogging stint lasted 1/4 a mile. For curiosities sake, I actually started out running around a 12:30 mile, which is the low end of my former speed. Before I started physical therapy, I was running a 11:30-12:30. My pace did slow down to a 13:30 as I jogged more, but I was pretty impressed I didn’t lose that much speed in 5 months of little to no vigorous exercise.

I jogged two more times, once before the hill and once again after the hill. I only jogged .10-.20 miles these times because I was having that weird pain in my other hip and I didn’t wear a supportive enough sports bra (my how you forget these things when you haven’t ran for 5 months..)

I was determined to cross the finish line jogging. I walked until I got 1/4 a mile from the finish line and just started jogging at that point. You have to turn a corner before you get to the line, so I started jogging before then. I put my ipod to my finishing song, Tubthumper by Chumbawumba. I kept repeating the chorus, “I get knocked down, but I get up again, you’re never gonna keep me down” over and over as I jogged to the finish line. All the sudden I saw Sarah and my cousin waiting before the finish line and I threw up my arms and waved to them.

And then I started crying (let’s be honest, I’m crying now as I write this). At this point my pace was down to 12:30 and I felt fantastic as I crossed the finish line. I truthfully could have kept up this walk/jog thing if I needed to. Yes, my non-injured hip was feeling weird, but my injured hip was feeling perfect.

Words cannot describe how amazing I felt after this race on Saturday. Words can’t describe how happy and blessed I feel that I’m finally better and can start running and working on building back up my mileage and speed. I can run races again. I can pick a new half marathon to train for. I can pick up my cross training again and really get back into my 5-6 day exercise schedule of my former life, 6 months ago.

Oktoberfest 5K two years ago (my first 5K)

That run on Saturday took:

• 16 weeks of physical therapy
• 5 months of exercise restriction
• 3 months of prescription anti-inflammatory drugs
• Months of crying myself to sleep from frustration, anger and sadness
• a $500 bike and a lot of elliptical and walking workouts

It was all worth it to finally feel like I’m back right now, at this instant. I finally can schedule runs again and yes, it will be slow and require extensive warm-ups, stretching, icing, heating, etc – but at least I know I can do it and I’m not going to stay injured.

If you are suffering from an injury, please just know there are so many positive things that can come from that injury. Now that I’m back to running and officially on the other side of injury, I plan on sharing my perspective on all of these issues.

Hey, remember that time I ran for the first time in 5 months? ahhhhhhhh me too!