Running, jumping, climbing trees

Sadly, it turns out not so much with the running. Still. It's been almost a year (minus two-ish weeks) since I hurt my foot before the marathon. My knees had been giving me trouble, but I was gonna push through that. But I could hardly walk on my foot. The marathon was a no-go.

It was many weeks before I could walk properly and without limping. It was months more before I could walk without pain. Then, months followed in which I could walk without pain unless I walked a lot, or was carrying many heavy things while I walked. This came up a lot at the pantry, but I still think I was a better candidate to carry those things than the 80+year-old volunteers. Anyway, the last two-ish months, I have had pretty well-on no pain. Which translates to, "Just the one time I can remember during that time."

So I decided to give running a go, and here's what I found:

1) Three months of wearing sandals have allowed my feet to spread so that they no longer like restrictive shoes. This caused, among other things, my toenails to bump my shoes with every step I took, and now my toenails are bruised and sore. If I had run a marathon yesterday, I would be without toenails now. As it is, I only ran ~1.5 miles, so they're sore and firmly connected.

2) My knees don't like running. Not even short distances. Sad story. Although they recovered quite quickly after I stopped running, giving short distances some modicrum of hope.

3) My foot-- really, only very vaguely sore. I think long distances would probably be no good for it, but I think it could handle short distances. It's issues numbers one and two that are really bugging me right now.

***

I had decided to give running a go again after this weekend. We had a study group down at the beach. I missed my bus by three minutes, according to the random old guy at the stop. This bus only runs once an hour on the weekends, and I decided I could walk to the beach in an hour. Turns out, I can walk to the beach in half an hour. That's about how long it takes me to walk to school (depending on which building I'm going to), so suddenly, the beach seemed far more accessible to me than it had when I had been taking the bus.

I was meeting Gina and Melodi and Melodi's daughter Sabina, but it turned out that they had decided to take their time getting there and didn't arrive for another hour and a half after I did. So, after looking around and not seeing them, I laid out in the grass, looking over the ocean, and read about statistical correlation and causation, as well as the difference between factor mediation and moderation on the IV and DV. Oh, I was having a right jolly time. Reading. On the beach. Looking out over the ocean.

And I got to thinking: if I could walk out here in half an hour, if I can run-- I can run here even quicker. And if I ran here quickly in the morning, I could jump in the water and stretch my muscles and joints a bit and then run back. I could do all that in an hour or less. That would be a nice little routine. If I can run.

The biggest issue before I try running again is the shoes. They're way too tight now, and I don't think I brought both pair of my running shoes (the other pair was larger). I'll have to look for those. If I have those, I'll give it another go. Otherwise... what? Dunno. New shoes? Because what if I buy new shoes only to discover my knees won't let me run anyway. Maybe it's getting on time to invest in a bike here.

Which brings me to my closing thought. In Murfreesboro and Chicago both I was able to find a purple Murray ten-speed in a thrift shop for under $20. Will my luck hold out in Honolulu? And the closing sub-thought is to wonder if this whole episode means I'm becoming a beach bunny.