The Road to PBP (and other stuff)

Thoughts prior to running my first marathon….

Thursday I had an MRI of my knee looking for anything wrong or injured in there. Apprehensively I went to the doctor yesterday for the diagnosis. I was hoping for a clear “No, your knee is screwed, don’t run.” or “Your knee is fine, run.” Nothing in-between and up for interpretation. I’ve been getting pressure all week of don’t run from co-workers, friends, and family. I was planning to run unless I got a clear no from the doctor. I needed to run this marathon…With my official registration in January a new lifestyle was ignited and completion of this marathon signifies and symbolizes….something, that was getting way too deep….Anyway, I really wanted to complete this marathon, if anything to check it off the list of things to do this life.

The results……

First words out of the doctors mouth, “You have an amazing knee!”, we were off to a good start. He proceed to tell me that I have one of the best structured knees he has ever seen and that the pain must be from over-training, or lack thereof in doing those insane races, “A normal person would have blown there knee out”. “You’ll be fine for the marathon, it may hurt like hell, but your knee can take it, and then start training it properly after the race.”

So here I sit on Saturday afternoon waiting for Tom (my friend I convinced into running this with me) to arrive from Palm Springs so we can go register. Not nervous, but eager to complete it. My adventures leading up to this have me feeling prepared. I know what pain is and that I can handle it, I know what it feels like to hit the wall and climb over it, and I know that I push myself past my limits and end up in the hospital if I’m not careful. (I need to write about that yet) I’m excited to post the results, thoughts, and experiences from the race, regardless it has been a great journey to this point.