Four years ago, if anyone were to tell me that I would one day be able to run over a mile, and enjoy it, and eventually run and complete a half-marathon under 3hrs, I would not have believed them.  It was unimaginable to me.

But we (the bro, the hubby and me) did it last weekend! I’m very proud of all of us! It didn’t come easy and there were some tough days leading up to it: too much sight-seeing and walking around Montreal in the rain and chill, and too much exploring at the fun Running Expo and not enough focus on proper nutrition and carbo loading, and me getting some bad stomach cramps and a severe headache the night before; my bro got a giant bruise on his shin when he slammed it the day before the trip, my hubby’s sinuses acting up….

But all that goes out the window when you become part of the crowd! The energy of race day takes over. When I registered, I put myself down for the last corral, thinking at best, I would finish around 3:30 minutes. (The time limit was 3:45.) I didn’t have high expectations on my time — just wanted to finish under the limit.  The first 6 miles wasn’t so bad. Even the next 2 after that was ok. But mile 9 and beyond became a mental and physical battle. The sole of my left foot, and eventually right foot, and the bony area under both big toes started hurting like a mutha$@$!@# every time each foot landed and it only got worse as I ran. It felt like my feet were going to split open right at the big toes.  I started to try not to land on the ball of my feet and that made my knee start to hurt a lot.  Then my thighs started to burn and ache, and my calves would tighten up and many times
around mile 11 or 12, my knee did not want to bend anymore.  But my hubby stuck with me to keep coaxing me on even though he could have just sprinted on ahead as he was doing ok and wasn’t feeling as much pain or fatigue as I was.  At one point, I even spent several minutes just speed walking my way through the streets of Montreal. Throw in more walk breaks and stretch breaks as we neared mile 13…. and somehow, the finish line was near.  Montreal has the friendliest and most supportive spectators — en francais too! When a spectator saw me walking and shouted, “come on, it’s only 500 meters away!”, I started running again and pushed myself to keep running till I crossed it at 2:59!  (Those were the longest 500 meters of my life!)
Right after crossing the finish line, all I wanted to do was lie down on the grass and have someone massage my thighs and calves and lower back because everything hurt!  Standing was an ordeal as the lactic build-up was just cramping up all over my thighs and we were all walking funny. But somehow, we managed to chill for a while, take in the ambience, watch the post-run concert a little bit, amble out of the park and mosey on down to St. Denis for some poutine and burgers at Frites Alors! before getting back to the hotel room to stretch and massage out those sore muscles!

Do I want to do this again? If you asked me right after I finished, I may have said no. Now, a week later, I do feel like doing it again! 🙂 Maybe not right away. My knee pain still haven’t fully disappeared and I still have to rehabilitate it. But I have a few short NYRR races that I’m thinking of signing up but will wait till after I come back from my next trip.  What I would want to improve on next time is the training — start training earlier and adhere to the training plan with more discipline and have better nutrition goals.  I didn’t train very well this time and hurt my knee back in July/Aug.  I also didn’t eat right (having drank alcohol prob 3-4 times the days leading up to the race trip and also eaten more fried, oily foods than I should have) and never ran more than 6 miles before hitting the 13.1 so it was pretty brutal on my body.  That said, all the soreness officially left my legs by Wed or Thurs.

My new running goals is to improve on speed and to attain the following:

• sub 30min 5k
• sub 1hr 10k
• achieving the 10-min mile (and eventually hitting a sub-10 min mile if possible)
• drop 15 lbs (which would help with speed and take a load off the knees!)

Thank you Montreal for a great race!

On Friday, I went to the physical medicine and rehabilitation doctor, also known as a physiatrist, to get a second opinion, as advised by my primary care physician. What I learned is that my PCP is pretty darn good! After a more involved examination involving twisting and pushing my legs this and that way and making me walk back and forth around the office and walk while crouching, the physiatrist confirmed what my PCP said — that indeed I do have patella femoral syndrome.  He gave me a set of exercises and stretches to do and prescribed that I get a chopat strap for BOTH knees. Apparently my right knee is also exhibiting symptoms of it though I have not felt them yet. Bummer.

The doctor said that if I did the quad exercises and stopped running for a while (probably months or longer), it should go away.  I have another check in with him in a month. If it still is an issue, next steps would be physical therapy.  He said I could run the race if I really wanted to but I would need to do so with knee straps for both knee and that at the first sign of pain, I need to stop running. The race is less than a month away and I stopped training about 3 weeks ago. I want to give it a try and just monitor the situation, I guess. I have a 3h and 45min time limit — maybe I can speed walk the 13.1??
Today, I bought a knee strap from REI. At first I tied it on too tight and my calf started throbbing in pain (cutting off circulation!).  After loosening it and walking around for a while, it seems ok. Though not as tight or “supportive” as the knee brace. I hope to go for a jog or longer walk or get some time on the elliptical with that and see how it feels. I would be sad if it turns out my genes and biomechanics point to the fact that I’m not meant for long distance running. Running has been a great stress reliever and a good way to exercise with minimal equipment. The other thing I like to do is play tennis but that is a high maintenance sport: rent a court, get a partner, and get tennis balls (luckily I have over 30 cans). With this knee, it will be a while before I can handle the quick and speedy back and forth shuffling required in tennis! 🙁

I know this is a very common knee injury, not just for runners but for many athletes and also for older people and people who do work that requires a lot of repetitive movements of the knee but I still feel disappointed about being injured while trying to be healthy and active. Well, I guess I have to focus more on the other other muscles in the hip, quads and core as well since these injuries happen when the body isn’t trained holistically.

Update on the KT tape: They keep falling off after one day! And I got a slight rash from the 3rd one I used. It may be because I haven’t figured out how to apply them properly or something but that was a bit disappointing as I was hoping the KT tape could be the best thing to support my knee during the work days (something that isn’t bulky under my pants and won’t cut off my circulation after 12-14 hours of mostly sitting). I have been wearing the knee brace to work and let’s just say by 2pm, I start to feel a tingling in my leg and by 4pm, I feel my lower leg go numb and soon my toes start to feel weirdly cold and before I leave the office, I have to remove the brace. Not fun.

The cost of knee pain so far: $78. Ah. It could be worse, I guess. Let’s get healthy!

• $10 – first doc visit
• $20 – physiatrist visit
• $18 – knee brace
• $13 – KT tape
• $17 – knee strap

The race is less than one month away and I really need my knee to work. The brace was good but after wearing it for nearly 13 hours straight on Sunday, the edge of the brace bruised both sides of my calf (maybe it’s just too snug or tight but it’s not adjustable).

Today, I picked up a pack of KT tape at the store for $14.xx. I have been pretty skeptical
of it for the past 2 years since having seen its popularity grow upon the pro athletes (how would TAPE heal my pain?!) but after having a fellow runner attest to their effectiveness for her IT band issues last year during her marathon, and having watched a bunch of athletes (swimmers, volleyball players) sport them during the olympics, I’m willing to give it a try.  I am not sure how to put it on but it comes with instructions and links to videos so I will see how this goes!

It’s more like I’m willing to give anything a try now to fix my knee so I can continue training and make the race! (Next to do list is to call the orthopedic docs to see if I need PT or not.)  Today, I didn’t wear the brace to work and what a mistake! I started favoring the leg by noon, limping and soon I had weird throbbing pain go up the side of my leg, all the way up to the hip, followed by a sharp pain shooting down my shin and by the end of the day, the top of my feet and my ankle started aching. It was as if my entire left leg was going on strike and didn’t want to work without giving me much pain and suffering.  It probably didn’t help that I was in heels so toward the end of the day, after my 4p meeting, I immediately switched over to the flats in the office. Oh the relief! Limping in the heels most likely added even more pressure to my knee.  There were times when I felt like my knee cap was just going to pop out or my leg would just separate.

How often we take good health and painless movement for granted, wasting our breath and energy complaining about everything under the sun until that health or painless existence disappears! Then suddenly, pain is all you experience, coloring every moment of your day. It’s a major distraction, I will tell you that. But my injury results from neglecting the core and hip — I never do exercises for those areas. Weak core, weak hip, and glutes will negatively affect the gait and cause all kinds of damage.

Update: I was going to wait till later in the week to try the tape but the 9pm coffee is
keeping me up so what else should I do at midnight? It’s not very easy. After watching several videos for runner’s knee and various different ways of using the KT Tape to get the knee back on track, I picked one and tried….and tried again. My first attempt didn’t give much support so I tried another. Four pieces of tape later…I think I got it. Though I should have stretched the tape a bit more for added support but I’m getting the idea how these tapes work. It’s cotton and it has good flexibility to pull your muscles into place without cutting off circulation the way the brace was. But I’m not sure I’m doing it right though — the brace provides good support and the tapes are providing some but not full. Maybe I gotta try again.

After a hectic week, I finally found some time to shop at the local CVS and bought myself a Futuro Knee Support Brace because the pain has become more regular and annoying.  Recommendation if anyone needs to buy a knee brace: measure your knee size first. I made the mistake of guessing and had to make two trips to get the right brace. The CVS I went to only carried Futuro and it was $18.29 (way more expensive than if I ordered it online, I guess) but I needed it right this moment, after limping around for a few days already.

I hope this does the job as the next set of braces get more expensive and more complicated looking. The doc said to get one with the little hole for patella support so this is it. I should give the specialist a call next week. It has been a long week of medical visits. First my x-ray at the hospital, then my mom’s trip to the hospital for double hernia surgery, and then my dentist appointment, and soon her dentist appointment as well. I already fell behind on a few things at work so will be doing some work this weekend as well.

I just finished sweeping and mopping with the brace on and it felt ok. I didn’t feel pain or the usual tightness and discomfort in the knees when bending the knee so I hope this brace holds the patella in place and trains it to go back to the groove and stop grinding on the bones. Maybe I will give it a spin in the gym before I head to my mom’s to check on her recovery. (Abdominal surgery is always a pain — literally. You can’t do anything without your core: sitting, standing, lying down, getting up, turning, etc. )

Hope to report an improvement in a few weeks. I haven’t been training this week at all — just was tired, sleepy and too busy all week.

I’ve been wearing Nike Frees for the last few years. I’ve had Nike Free, Nike Free+2 and recently, bought a pair of the Nike Free+3. I’ve had no problems with the first two versions — they felt comfortable from the start and barely need a break-in period. I liked them because of the wide toe box and the sock like fit. But sadly, the Nike Free+3 is a revamped version of the original and many reviews have said that it is tighter around the toe box area.

Against some reservations around the new design, I bought a pair and it is definitely more snug around the toe box. The older versions did not have a separate tongue but this one introduced the tongue, which I don’t like as it keeps shifting to the side. I took it out for a short walk and it was ok. I spend some time breaking it in for a week and while I do like the new sole (which seems firmer than the older models that wore out quickly), the shoe hurt my arch.

After a 3 mile run, I got two blisters, one per foot, right around the inner edge of my feet and that wasn’t fun.  I took a week off and then tried it with 1-2 mile walk/runs on the treadmill and it seemed ok. Then I took it out for a run on the road again and felt the blisters come back. It’s just slightly tighter than the older model around the toe box because after my blisters healed, I took the old Pinkies for a 5 miler and that was great – it was a comfortable and fun run and I didn’t have to limp back.

It’s still new (still in that first 30 days) so I’m hoping that it can be further broken into and “widen” up. I would be disappointed to know I spent $100 on a shoe that ends up hurting my feet more than helping my run.  I need to retire the black ones soon (as much as I don’t want to because that pair is super comfortable) because the heel is so worn away that it affects my posture.

I’m hoping to use the new shoes for a race in Sept but let’s see how they feel in another month. I wish there was a Road Runners Sports store in NYC because they are the only running store that lets you return your running shoe within 90 days, even if you have worn it before — no questions asked! (Granted, you have to join their VIP club, which cost $2 the first year and $24.99 every year after that but they have good discounts for VIP members. The Frees would cost $70-80 instead of $100 if you are a  VIP.) Looks like they have the Nike Free+2 on the Endangered list! It’s $83 and $75 if you are a VIP!!

I bought these at Sports Authority and if there were a policy where I can return the shoes despite having worn them a few times, I would totally return them right now.  But since I can’t, I will just have to hope they get more comfortable over time (or that my blistered feet get so callused it wouldn’t matter anymore).