The 2012 Bellingham Bay Marathon will not be the first marathon I run, as I originally planned. Thanks to two persistent injuries (one on the inner part of my left knee and one on the outer part of my girlfriend’s left knee), my girlfriend and I have opted to sit this marathon out. It wasn’t an easy decision, but we both felt it was the wisest option.
Sure, we could have run in pain and then limped along as far as our legs could carry us. But we both agreed that our chances of finishing this race were extremely slim. So, rather than tearing up our tendons or ligaments or whatever, we’re choosing to rest until we’re completely healed. We’d prefer not to ruin our legs for the future. This way, we’ll both have a better chance of crossing the finish line at the next marathon we train for.
When will that next marathon be? Right now, we don’t know. What we do know is that after our initial injuries, taking two or three weeks off and then easing back into short distances and a run/walk routine didn’t allow either of us to heal. So it might take a couple of months worth of rest (read: no training at all) for us to properly heal and be ready to begin training again. We’ll both know more after our visits to the doctor in the coming weeks. We also know that when we do begin training again, we’ll have to take it slow. No more forcing ourselves to run faster than we’re able. And no more four-month marathon training. We’ll have to ramp up the distances slowly, over the course of about six months, I suspect. That will be a better way of going from 0 to 26.2. (Maybe a gait analysis would serve me well, too.)
I want to make sure we have this in writing, so I cannot renege. Elisa and I will run a marathon. We’re not giving up on that. We’re just postponing it so that we can actually finish the race. Make no mistake: it will happen.
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