2023… I mean, in all honesty, it’s been the worst year of running in my life, bar none. It started with me unable to finish marathon training due to severe, chronic joint and soft tissue pain, I spent around 8 months seeing specialists and trying things with no real positive outcomes, and I’m ending the year never knowing from one day to the next if I’ll be in too much pain to run-walk more than a couple miles or if I’ll be able to do 13.1 because it happens to be a “good day” for no apparent reason.
Which I realize sounds like a gigantic downer, and it really mostly is. But there are a few positives in the mix and I’m trying really hard to appreciate them…
Somewhere along the way, we did find an Rx that‘s cheap, has no side effects, and actually reduces the nerve-associated pain significantly. That’s been a big boon to daily life and a help with still maintaining some amount of running.
I’ve inadvertently found that I don’t really need to pile on mileage to maintain some endurance fitness, and the reduction in mileage has given me back time in my life that I really value for other things.
I’m going to save SO much money going forward by not needing as many running shoes and not registering for as many races!
Proudest running moment? I think it has to be actually finishing the WDW Marathon, against a whole lot of odds. Undertrained. Undernourished. Demoralized. Not at all at my best. Started with the goal of getting to 13.1 and calling it a day… but felt okay at that point and kept going. The pain really hit HARD on Western Way, which is a perfectly terrible spot to try to end your race, so I texted a friend for some tough-love support, pulled over to stretch, dug deeper than I’ve had to ever before, and finished. Seeing that same friend in EP with a fresh, cold beer for me was momentous - I tear up even now when I think about it. I’m so glad my 7th and likely final marathon was complete and I didn’t have to bail out!