Country Music Marathon
Today was the 15th annual Country Music Marathon. Big ups to Scott Wietecha of Hendersonville, TN for winning the marathon once again. He was a few minutes slower than last year’s 2:22 finish (finished at 2:25:51 today) but this was a new course. I had the chance to see him run in a 5K earlier in the year which he finished in just over 15 minutes. You can follow his running blog here, http://runwietecha.blogspot.com.
Once again I was part of Team TobyMac and I was registered to run my first 1/2 marathon. Unfortunately I ran into an issue during a run earlier in the month. I was out during a run and noticed a sharp pain on the outside of my knee three miles in. I had this pain before earlier in the year and was able to run through it, not this time. I tried to walk back home but ended up having to call for a pick-up. Definitely a first!
I took a few days off and picked up a foam roller thinking it was an IT band issue. Rolling my IT band did provide some relief. I went to the gym after being off running for a few days and it was feeling good. I even picked up a new pair of running shoes and found out that I was now a size smaller. I figured my body was telling me that I was in the wrong shoes, needed to do some more stretching and that I would feel fine if I were to ease back into it. I did a quick run the next morning and only noticed some minor discomfort near the end.
Since the marathon was a few weeks away and I had a 10K coming up I started checking the forums over at the running group I joined (Nashville Striders) to see which doctor(s) they were recommending to runners in my situation. I kept reading about a Dr. Johnson over at Elite Sports Medicine so I tried to get an appointment with him. I ended seeing their knee specialist, Dr. Price and he put my knee through some tests and we went away with a steroid shot since everything else tested out fine. We lined up some PT to work on strengthening my hip/leg and we would take it from there.
I was still going to try the 10K I had coming up since I had a friend coming in from out of town who was going to run in it as well. It was during my next gym session though a day later that the pain came back. We had a station where it was a down and back run in the parking lot and while it was supposed to have been a sprint I was just going to jog it. I got twenty feet into it and had the pain once again. It reminded me of the pain I had during an injury in wrestling practice back in high school. I ended tearing my meniscus then and had surgery on this same knee.
I ended up going in for an MRI and while the results were negative for any ACL/MCL tears, I did some straining of the ACL. Prognosis was another meniscus tear so with just over a week before my first 1/2 marathon I was scheduled to have knee surgery. The surgery was this past Wednesday and it went very well. I ended up having whatever was left of my meniscus cleaned up and while the doc was in there he found some torn cartilage that was also cleaned up.
I’m now on my road to recovery and my running future doesn’t look very bright. I go back in for my post-surgery follow-up on Wednesday and I’ll get the skinny as to what the future of my knee holds (and most definitely a full replacement will be in my future, unfortunately sooner than expected). It was the Country Music Marathon that got me into running a year ago and thanks to Team TobyMac I became the runner I am today. I never thought I would have gone out and just ran. I never thought I would have signed up for the races I have run over this past year from numerous 5Ks to two 10Ks and even a 15K! I have lost over 100 pounds on this journey and for that I am grateful.
I never did get that 1/2 marathon completed and it’s likely I never will. I won’t be able to put that 13.1 sticker on the back of my car but I thank God he gave me the chance to change my life with the running I was able to get in. I was hoping I would have been able to start running with my girls this summer but I’ll just have to get them into earlier than I did. I’ll have to resort to lower impact training to get my exercises in and do my part in volunteering at area runs. Who knows, maybe I’ll try and walk a 1/2 marathon at some point!
While it was a year in the waiting, this weekend was a fun filled weekend none the less. I was able to get the family out to the team dinner last night followed by a wonderful concert from TobyMac! We did make it to LP Field today to cheer on the runners before the race and welcome them back afterwards to our post-race area. It was a blessing to have been there with everyone and maybe next year we’ll all walk the 5K as a family. As I look back it’s most definitely better that this happened prior to the race. I would have hated to have had this injury occur during the race and things do happen for a reason.
I did get many words of thanks from various team members for being such an encouragement to them with my journey this past year. That definitely helped with the sadness of realizing I wasn’t out there running. Seeing the first wave of runners take off on the television was not how I was imagining this morning happening during my training. Then when the 1/2 marathon runners were coming in around the 2:45 mark it was tough then as well since that was what I was striving for. Again, I am grateful for all that I have been able to accomplish and still being with the team was uplifting.
I will admit it sucks that many of the mornings I was out training this past year was during one of the coldest winters here in Nashville (I was looking forward to the warmer weather), but I just need to stay on track and focus on a new way of training. I still have my group over at Main Street Strength and Conditioning to look forward to getting back to and I’m sure Ronnie over there will be able to get me in a set of exercises to suit my needs just fine. I’m definitely not giving up. So I say thanks to those on Team TobyMac for inspiring me to do what I’ve done. I say thanks to those that supported me and donated to New Hope Academy. It truly is because of them and you that I’ve been able to accomplish all that I have this past year.
Thank you!