Healthy Balance, Healthy Life

Guest Post: Lesson Learned…Listen To Your Body!!!!

Posted on April 6, 2011. Filed under: Exercise |

Hey, bloggy loves! My friend Kristina from undergrad recently ran her first half marathon and learned a great lesson about respecting her body’s limits from her experience. I don’t want to say too much and steal her thunder but I do want to say that I love this post because I think many runners can relate to the feeling of wanting to unsafely push yourself past your limits for fear of feeling unaccomplished.

So without further ado, here’s Kristina’s story!

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During middle school and high school, I was part of the cross country and track teams. I have never been very competitive, which is why I originally joined the cross country team. The people seemed less “gung ho” and more about having fun. It was always personally fulfilling when I improved my race times, and it was an added bonus that we won the championship my senior year.

Naugatuck Valley League Champions ‘05

After high school, I thought of running in college, but the commitment seemed too intense for me. The college team looked much more competitive than teams I had previously been on. So during my four years at Muhlenberg College, I basically took a break from running. Every so often I would get the urge to run but not nearly as much as I had before.

In August 2010, I moved to Boston for graduate school and started running again (mostly due to a recent break-up and the need to cope in some way). Well, running became an awesome coping mechanism for me (really helped keep my mind off things). I decided that I should have a specific running goal to work towards. Running a half marathon seemed daunting at first, but the more I ran, the easier it was to imagine. I am originally from Connecticut so I settled on the Greater Danbury Half Marathon (April 3, 2011) and began rigorously training for it in January.

Early on in my training, I suffered from some injuries (specifically pain in the arch of my foot and severe IT band pain). Luckily, I was able to work through these problems and everything seemed to be going well – I even ran in a few shorter races before the half marathon.

Bradford Valentine Road Race (5 miles)

Polar Bear Run (7.6 miles)

My last run before the half marathon was on Thursday, March 31, 2011. It was only 3 miles and I felt really good during the run, but afterwards the muscles at the top of my right leg were hurting a lot. On Friday and Saturday, the pain did not seem to subside at all. When I woke up on Sunday morning, my leg felt a little better but definitely not 100%. Since this was my first half marathon, I really wanted to try and run it because I had been working towards this goal for so long…. BIG MISTAKE!!!!

Greater Danbury Half Marathon (13.1 miles)

During the first 3 miles of the half, my leg felt okay…. It was painful but I just tried to focus on my music and ignore the pain. By the fourth mile, the pain was excruciating. I could barely move my right leg back and forth. During the Polar Bear Run, a few weeks before, I had gotten a bad cramp during the middle of the race but it eventually went away. I thought that maybe the pain in my leg would also subside if I just tried to push through it. Eventually I realized that something was really wrong and the pain was not going to go away.

I kept on running…. mostly because it was my first half marathon and I wanted to finish. I had been training to run in this race for 3 months and I knew I would feel accomplished only if I finished the race. So for the next 9 miles I stumbled along with only one good leg.

A little after the 12^th mile marker, I saw my mom (FYI…. She has recently run a few half marathons herself, which I think is very impressive!). She knows what my normal race pace is and when she did not see me come in at that time she knew something must have happened. My mom began walking the course backwards to find me. When I saw her, I told her I wanted to finish and she encouraged me of course, telling me I was not that far from the finish.

My biggest supporter… My mom!!!!

After I finished, the EMTs gave me an ice pack and said that they were shocked I was able to run those 9 miles in this condition. I have been using crutches to get around, but the pain is still really bad. I have made an appointment with a physical therapist/sports medicine specialist to get his opinion on what I can do to recover as quickly as possible.

It seems like I have been much more prone to injuries since I started running again in August. During middle school and high school, I never suffered from any serious issues. I am going to talk to the physical therapist about possible reasons I may be having a lot more issues now.

My theories:

1) I have been training much more rigorously than I ever did in high school and running does take a toll on the body.

2) I have very poor running form.

3) One of my legs is much shorter than the other. I used to have a special heel lift to make up for the difference but I lost it several years ago. (I am interested to get a professional opinion about all this.)

All-in-all, I will never run in another race when my body does not feel 100%, especially a long run like a half marathon. I would advise everyone to do the same – LISTEN TO WHAT YOUR BODY IS TELLING YOU. Pain is nature’s way of saying that something is wrong. Also, if you are a runner who is suffering from a lot of injuries, it is best to meet with a professional to see what can be done or changed to prevent these issues.

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Thank you so much, Kristina! I will definitely keep this in mind while training for and running my first half (the Mad Marathon in Waitsfield, Vermont on July 10th!).

Have any of you ever pushed your body too much? When do you know when it’s okay to “push” yourself through discomfort and when it’s not okay and unhealthy?

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