KristenBegins...

I’ve officially endured my first injury as a “runner.” I have been diagnosed with a muscle strain in my right leg. More specifically, the back of my leg, or my hamstring, aches from my butt to my calf. I attempted to run today after looking like a crippled person running yesterday and could not make it more than 5 minutes. Me loving the fact that I have health insurance means I make frequent trips to the doctor whenever I feel like anything is out of whack. Remember, my little breathing problem over the summer that magically went away when she told me they didn’t see anything wrong with my lungs. So I made my little appointment, explained my problem, took off my pants, and was told to take ibuprofen, do some Internet research for stretches, and go see a physical therapist to make sure I don’t further injure it before the marathon. I wanted to tell the doctor that I and WebMD were good ol’ pals and I had already self-diagnosed myself with some kind of strained hamstring. Can I keep my $15, thank you? She also told me because of my lack of good stretching before and after she was surprised it has taken me this long to get injured. I stretch thank you very much. Touching your toes once or twice counts, right? Back in my pre-marathon training days I would have wished for injury to have an excuse for why I could not exercise. However, with 7 weeks to go, it freaking me out. I’ve spent way too many hours today on runners’ forums reading about injuries. For once, I actually related to people saying they miss running or how unnerving it is to not be able to run or how they were worried about set backs to their training. Here’s the thing… I don’t actually enjoy running. I’d much rather be doing, oh, I don’t know, anything else. But now that I have set this goal to complete 26.2 miles in January, I feel like I absolutely cannot miss a day. Like if I do, my day is incomplete. For once I understand it becoming a part of the daily routine. Kind of like having to get dressed. I rarely ever zone out or get that runner’s high… but I do get this strange euphoric feeling to have completed 14 miles… or even 3. I guess it is because I’ve never been a runner and, in a way, I still don’t feel like a runner. Earlier this year, 5 minutes about sent me to an early grave. So it is kind of cool to see what my body is actually capable of doing. My body now, however, is cursing at me right now. I just hope it forgives me soon because my days of training are winding down and I must, I say must, not get picked up by that “I could not finish the marathon” van. (I, um, would also kind of like to beat Katie Holmes’ time)