There is something about me and the fall that just do not get along. I love the fall, and I love running in the fall, but I always seem to get hurt in the fall. For the most part, I can say it is undoubtedly my fault. It has occurred at least three straight years, and I can think of a few other times when it has happened in the fall as well, but it is not just the loss of exercise and worrying about fitness that is affected. Almost every area of my life suffers as a result, and it just sucks, there is no way around it.
Let us go back three years first. In 2021, I was starting to get fast again for the first time since college, and cross country season was winding down, and the last race was at Finger Lakes Community College, which was super muddy, and it had a massive hill, and the day after the race, the back of one of my legs was seriously hurt, and it was effecting my knee, but I had a half marathon the next weekend, so I struggled through the week, and then I ran the half marathon, which went well for the most part, but I could feel the stiffness setting in through the last few miles. I did manage to get fourth and get a dinosaur bbq gift card, but I was not feeling great. Then when I thought I was healthy, I did a 100-mile week, because I was off from work, and I got reinjured to finish off the year.
In 2022, I signed up for a fall marathon at the last minute, so last minute that they did not even guarantee me a shirt, but I had enough time to jam some extra training in. I just wanted to secure a 2024 Boston spot, so when I ran Boston in 2023, I could go all out and not worry about needing to requalify if I blew up, but after four straight 80-mile weeks, my hips/back blew up. It hurt to walk and move around normally let alone run. I never even knew I could get hurt in such a manner just from normal running, but I had. So I had to eat the $100+ entry fee, and I could not run for almost two months. It was ridiculous! Eventually I found out that it was being caused by a tight psoas, again, something that I did not even know existed, but now it is something I stay on top of, and I even bought an expensive piece of plastic that reaches far enough in so that I can massage it to some extent every day.
That brings us to this year. I have never had a serious calf injury, but a couple weeks before Pikes Peak, my calf started to hurt, but it was not debilitating, I was able to figure out the problem, and I got it worked out days before the race, and it was doing relatively fine after the race. Then three weeks ago, I started to have some minor pain, but it did not seem like it was going to be a big deal. I decided I was going to run 30 miles. I was a month past Pikes Peak, and I was feeling relatively good. On Saturday, I started my run with my pack, but I was not feeling it, so I switched it to the next day. On Sunday, I felt great, and I ran the 30 miles at a 7:30 pace. Then when I was leaving for work on the following day, when I walked down the steps of my apartment, I felt something in my Achilles, nothing major, but enough to feel discomfort, but I do not run on Mondays anyways, so I did not think much of it.
Then Tuesday came, and I tried to run, but I felt a little discomfort, so I called it. I had just run 30 miles, I did not need to do anything, and it did not seem like it was a big deal. It was just a minor discomfort, but then Wednesday came, and I was only able to do a couple of miles, and the same for Thursday, and then I gave up on the week and did not run Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or Monday, and I figured that would be good enough, but it was not.
There was never a point where it felt like this was going to be a serious problem, but here we are three weeks later, and only two weeks away from JFK, and I cannot do 8 miles without some discomfort or run up a hill. The weirdest part is that the spot has changed multiple times. Each time I think I have it solved, and that I know the spot that needs to be massaged and iced, it changes. It is so disheartening. Every day I wake up and think that it will be the day that I feel okay, and it is not.
It has totally taken all my motivation away from everything. Running is the thing that helps bring me life and vigor, but when I am running, it is like all I can do is dwell on what hurts, and that does not make running fun or clear the head. So now it is so much harder to focus on schoolwork when it is time, or to focus on actual work when I am there, because I just want to resolve this issue, and I cannot figure it out.
Every year I turn into a fall leaf. I start the year off growing, and then I slowly come into bloom as the year goes on, but as the weather starts to turn, so does my body. I fall off the tree, and I start to die as I lay on the ground, and it feels like I am being trampled over just waiting to start again the next year.
I am still hopeful that in the next week, things will turn around, and that I will be good to go to run JFK, but it is starting to become more of a reality that I might not be able to run it, and that another year will pass, where I do not run an ultramarathon, and this was the race I was looking forward to the most since Boston. One year, I will make it through the year and not get injured, but this is not that year!
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