How my 10 km run turned into a 42 km marathon.  All I can say is OUCH!

The BMO marathon was last Sunday.  Taking a break from running for a while due to a calf injury, I intended to do the 10 km run last Sunday. The longest distance I have ever ran is 14 km and that is when I was running consistently.  so I figured if I dug deep enough the 10 km should not be too difficult.

8 km into the race I decided that I might be able to pull off the 1/2 marathon if I dug even deeper within.

Next thing I knew I was facing the fork in the road, by this point in time I was already feeling the swelling in my knees and back.  Go right for the 1/2 marathon and go left for the full 42 km marathon.  I have no idea what came over me but at an instant I hid my color coded race bib under my shirt and made a left towards the entire marathon.

As soon as I made the left it seemed like majority of the runners disappeared and the reality of my decision sunk deep into my heart.  Now I was committed and there was no turning back.

I knew I was in for some agony for the next few hours, just did not realize how painful these few hours were going to be.

I made 2 commitments to myself at that moment in time -

I will not give up and I will have fun till the end.

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Imagine the power of those 2 commitments in anything that you do in life.

The things you are capable of achieving.

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I was having the time of my life, singing, a little bit of dancing, telling myself some of my favorite jokes and never losing that smile off my face.  To my surprise I was doing better than ever expected, well until I hit that 19 km mark.

Than I felt a sharp nerve pain fire off from my hip to the back of my right knee. If you have ever had a nerve fire as such, you know that you instantly start singing a different kind of a song.  Once I realized that this nerve pain on every step was not going anywhere, my only option was to have fun with it.  So I started talking to it, laughing at it and the next thing I knew I ran 2 more km with (her) as a pain in my side. he he

It seemed like it was at the exact time when I saw the 22 km sign, my right knee started to swell like a balloon.  I still had 1/2 a marathon to run.

My 1o min. run and 1 minute walk intervals turned to a 5 min. run and a 1 minute walk.

It took me a few more km to figure out a perfect movement with my hip in order to be able to run without bending my right knee too much.  One of my happiest moments – I was back on the move again.

You see at this point as far as I was concerned I had already finished the marathon, only thing left was to run over to the finish line and get my metal.

There is a big difference to the psyche from thinking what you want to accomplish and verbally speaking what you have already accomplished, in the near future.

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Than came km 27 – my left knee decided to play a joke on me and started to swell up.  My first reaction was frustration at this point as I still had 15 km to go.  As soon as I got frustrated I started to realize how badly my body was really hurting, everything that could possibly hurt started to hurt at that point in time. And on top of that everything that should not be hurting also was hurting.

That was the best thing that could have happened to me

as it gave the the awareness how important my state of mind was at that moment in time.

Instantly I started singing again, moving my upper body like I was dancing to the music, put on the biggest smile on my face and visualized every molecule in my body crossing the finish line.  And magically the pain started to disappear, well at least lessen.

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Well until I hit km 32.  I can’t bend my right knee, I have a nerve firing off from my hip to my right knee on ever step and now my left knee was getting harder to bend.  My feet were swollen and every step made my feet feel like they were being tenderized by a mallet.  That is okay, bring it on I told my self as there is only 10 km left.

Then came the practical joke of the day.  8 km left and I cannot bend either of my knees, and every step was excruciating pain at the top and bottom of my feet as they both were swollen and tender.

The last 8 km truly tested how committed I was to the 2 things I promised myself.  I will never give up and I will have fun.

It took me almost 2 km to figure out that the awkward hip movement run I was trying to do without bending my knees was slower than if I just tried to walk.

So the rest of the way instead of saying ouch with every step, I smiled, I laughed, I stared at the true colors around me, I passionately listened to the birds that were cheering me on with their singing and I took one step at a time.

The last 6 km did take for ever to finish, but crossing that finish line in the end knowing that I can always count on my promise to myself made it all worth while.  To me the greatest satisfaction was not the stupidity of running a marathon without training for it.  The satisfaction is to know I can believe in my commitments to myself.  How can we expect people to reply on our word to them if we cannot even rely on ourself.

I would never recommend the above, as I would be the first to say it was a stupid idea.  That being said, never forget what you are capable of achieving, have the courage to stretch and to fight for what you want.  We are capable of so much more than we give ourselves credit for.

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5 Things I Took Away From This Journey

1. Have the courage to jump in and than commit to your actions.

2. The sign of a persons true character is one that will keep their promises to themselves.  When I want to know if I can trust someone, I want to know if they keep their own promises to themself.

3. No matter what your journey, slow down enough to cherish the colors around you, to listen to the sounds, to smile, to laugh and to dance with every step.

4. Never give up.

5. You can have fun in any situation – Never forget that!

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I say to you, never give up and take every step towards your dreams, cherishing the fun in every moment of that journey.

Few days have passed and now I can ‘kind of’ where my shoes and ‘kind of’ walk again.

Happy Running

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