The Run of PAIN!

So it happens to all of us, some more often than others.  You are ready to run, excited to run, pumped up for the run and with in the first few strides it hits you....PAIN!

Now I'm not talking about minor throbs or simple aches or even an occasional twinge.  I am talking about full on, I don't think I can run anymore, PAIN!

Michele's bad luck started out before she even left her house.  She thought since I was running late she would do some stretching and....tweeked her knee somehow.  So she was doomed before we got out of the car.  Today was to be a Robie training run.  We started at the bottom of Shaw Mtn Road.  Immediately I felt excruciating pain in my Achilles.  I tired to grit through it but after a mile and a half I knew I could go no further.  I had already stopped twice to try and stretch them out with no luck.  So we stopped.  I reached into my hydration pack and TADA!!  A Biofreeze wipe single!  The relief wasn't immediate, but it did come!

Michele snatched it from me and rubbed it all over her knee before we continued.  Boy we were quite the pair today.  We ran up to the Orchard Gulch Trail Head and turned around and headed back to the car.  The run down was easier, it is always easier.  The trail was in great condition too and it wasn't too windy.  A fierce headwind did pick up though on our last 2 miles down.

We realized that we have become long run snobs.  What exactly is a long run snob?  Here are some of the definitions:

1)  You only run in races that are half-marathon or longer.  Anything else is just not worth the time or money.
2)  You cheat on the back off days in your training when you are only supposed to run 3 or 4 miles.  "I'm not lacing up for a run that short!"
3)  You don't feel warmed up and good until mile 4.  Those first miles are just the warm up and don't really count.
4) When someone asks what you ran that day you feel guilty and apologetic if it is anything under 10 saying "Oh, I only ran 9 today."
5) Thinks "sprinter" is a bad word.
6) A half marathon is a "training" run.
7) You're daily runs are now too long for the dog!

So we laughed at the new place we have come to in our running life, as long run snobs and we decided, we are happy to be there.  Most the aches and pains have subsided and we cruise on down the last mile to the car.  Today we definitely EARNED the sprite!  There were no complaints on that one.  We stretch and hope that we can be pain free on our 18 miler in two days, dreaming of ice and rest for the rest of the day (which neither of us gets to do).

So as I write this I wonder.  Why do we run even when it feels like our legs are on fire or joints may fall off?  Why do we continue when the pain is impossible to ignore?  Why do we run in the snow, wind, rain, when passersby give us strange looks?  It is because we CAN so we DO.  If we didn't we would go insane, and thus explains the INSANITY.  We do insane things...to stay SANE.

And now I realize, that was my last Biofreeze wipe.  I just toggled over to a different window and ordered 24 more.  Better safe than sorry.