Run Forrest Run

I'm tense and scared. I've done MRI on my right knee and will be consulting the doctor tomorrow. I hope the doctor will find some way to keep me going on the tread mill.

I've been a decent athlete but never really been a runner. The farthest I had ever run was in 1997. It was probably around 4 kms and I almost died getting back home. I re-discovered running in the winter of 2009.

Trying to lose weight, I found running possibly the most effective way of keeping healthy. 3 months into running, I got my cholesterol numbers under control, in 6 months, I stripped 2" off my waist.

In Jan-2010, my boss visited the US. Sameer is a fit man. He is about 7 years my senior and pretty energetic. He told me about his maiden half marathon experience and I started wondering if I could ever run 13 miles.

The day he left, I started taking running seriously. Winter of 2010 was one of the harshest winters in DC with record snowfall. As I could not go out, I took Washington gym membership and started running on treadmill. I still remember the first time I ran 6 miles in an hour. It was early march and it was late night (10:00 pm) I finished running. I was the only one there. I had raised my hands like I was crossing the ribbon at the end of the race.

By early April, I was doing 10 mile run once a week. And finally on the day I turned 37, I ran my first half marathon. It was on the treadmill, and I clocked, 02:09. It was tiring, but it felt good.

After I returned to Mumbai I took up membership at the local gym. I always ran on the treadmill. At office, I met a few enthusiasts, and we started comparing notes. By August, I was seriously practicing for Mumbai Marathon. Unfortunately, last year was the first time they introduced qualifying time and selection lottery. As I had never run a Marathon before, my name was put through the lottery and rejected. I received the check for Rs. 570 with a regret letter couple of weeks before the race. It broke my heart. I decided to run my own half marathon on the eastern express highway. It was the first time I ran the distance on the road. Let me just say it was quite different from running on a tread mill in the cosy confines of a gym.

I researched the net and found out another marathon was being planned in Thane on 27-Feb. I jumped on the opportunity and got myself registered. I had now started practicing on the road. During one of these practice runs, I felt pain in my right knee. The pain persisted for a day and then went away.

I finally ran the Half Marathon on the D-day clocking 02:01. I thought it was okay for a almost 38 yr first timer. The next day however, I could not walk. My knee hurt so much, I could not bend it.

From then on, my knee would hurt every I'd run and the next day and then it would be okay. As time progressed, it became worse, I stopped running on the road and went back to the treadmill. But the hurt kept worsening. I reduced the distance from 16kms to 10 to 8 to 5.

Then last week I finally decided to visit a doctor. He has asked to just stop running completely and ordered xray and MRI to check damage to bone / cartilage. He will review my case tomorrow.