9 Minute Mile

Back in November 2006, I ran a 5K in 24:46, my fastest time ever to run that distance in my life, including training runs and races.  And although it is far from an impressive time in the grand scheme of running, it was impressive for me.  Unfortunately, I haven't come anywhere close to that time in the three years since, and I haven't entered a 5K since.  The reason for this mostly has to do with injuries, a series of leg injuries that remain unsolved to this point, three years later. 

My knees have always been bad -- I had a torn ACL in both knees when I ran that race in November 2006 -- but either in that race or in the following spring/summer softball season, I must have torn or aggravated the lateral meniscus in my left knee, because it's never been right since that race (of course, it wasn't "right" then, but the ACLs didn't really hurt too much during a straight run).  So my training the following summer was lagging behind, but softball ended, and I was prepared to race the same two fall 5Ks I'd run the previous two years, and hopefully get my time into the sub-25 minute range again.  But on literally my first training run after softball ended, in August 2007, I tripped on a rock about 100 feet from my house, fell to the ground, and tore ligaments in my right ankle.  I just thought it was an ankle sprain, something I'd had before, but it was bad, and it didn't get any better.  X-rays proved negative for broken bones, but I didn't do much to treat the injury other than ice and briefly wearing an air splint, and it obviously never healed.  I played softball that fall despite the bad ankle and knees (F Jan) but attempts to run were too painful and I didn't race in any 5Ks that fall.

The ankle hadn't improved at all by the following spring, but I ran on it, or tried to, and managed to deal with the pain.  The pain of the run itself wasn't nearly as bad as the constant pain whenever I had shoes on or was sitting in the office or driving anywhere -- you know, pretty much life -- but I kept icing it after runs and doing a few exercises my sister (a physical therapist) prescribed for me, and I hoped things would improve.  Then softball season came around again and just like the fall (and unlike the previous few years), I found myself playing both ends of the doubleheaders nearly every week (F Jan), on the bad knees and ankle, which was painful enough as it is but made running nearly impossible.  By the time softball season was over, I finally gave in to the long-standing need to get my legs fixed by surgery and I consulted a doctor who is well renowned in South Jersey as a sports injury surgeon specializing in knee injuries.  He was recommended by my sister.  I had ACL reconstruction and lateral meniscal something or other last October, which obviously eliminated any chances of running in the fall 5ks, and then I spent weeks recovering from the surgery before entering physical therapy the week of Thanksgiving.  I spent 4 months in therapy, driving two to three times a week down to Princeton for work on my knee, and eventually adding another night for my ankle therapy.  When I got the MRI on my knee that revealed the torn ACL (which I already knew about) and the meniscal problem, I also got an MRI of the ankle, which revealed tears in two tendons on the outside of my right ankle.  This is why it never "healed" on its own.  And the doctor (and everyone I've spoken to about it) recommended against ankle surgery, which "never works out right".  Instead, it was therapy that was prescribed, after I'd sufficiently recovered from the knee surgery of course.

So I was going to therapy 3 to 4 days a week, doing exercises on my own on the off-nights, and things were generally improving in the knee, other than new pain on the front/right side of the left knee, the part of the knee not operated on, but my therapist assured me this was not uncommon and we'd work our way out of it.  The pain persisted though, and the only thing that seemed to help was the use of Tech Tape (that black tape that Olympic volleyball players wore on their shoulders).  The Tech Tape seemed to alleviate the pain completely, for a day or so, but then it would return.  I reported the issue to my doctor, but he, like my therapist, seemed unconcerned.  It was only 5 months since my surgery, it would just take time.  So when my therapist got me on the treadmill to try jogging for the first time since the surgery -- and it went well, incredibly well -- I thought I was on the way to complete healing (of the knee; the ankle was another issue).  Unfortunately, my insurance was about to run out.  My insurance covered 40  therapy sessions, and we were at 38 after the run on the treadmill.  So after the first time I actually felt some significant progress, my therapist said, "Yeah, we can't treat you anymore unless you want to pay $80 a session out of your pocket".  At the time, my company had reduced our hours and I was worried about my finances, so adding a few hundred bucks for therapy a week seemed out of the question.  Instead, he gave me a series of exercises to perform at a health club on my own, and said I should be fine.  I left the therapy at the end of April.  And the knee hasn't improved since then.  In fact, it's gotten worse.

I don't know why.  My doctor doesn't know why.  Perhaps I'm not doing the right exercises or doing them improperly or not doing them enough, or I injured something on the right front during therapy that never healed, or perhaps another summer playing softball -- and diving all over the infield on occasion -- created more injuries.  I don't know.  I had another MRI (this time an anthrogram) in August of this year, and the results were negative.  The ACL was in tact and there was no torn medial meniscus as I and the doctor had suspected.  There was a little fraying of the lateral meniscus that had been repaired, but nothing serious, and that's not the side of the knee which hurts.  I got a cortisone shot, which helped for a couple days, but then I spent 6 hours in a cramped car driving to Vermont and the pain was back.  It's still here as I type now.  Would continued therapy have solved the problem?  I don't know, but thanks to the medical insurance system, I'm probably going to have to have surgery again, another expensive procedure, because they wouldn't pay a few hundred more to continue rehab sessions.  Great system.

The ankle, on the other hand, has improved dramatically in the past few months.  Therapy didn't help, at all, but (a) I had trouble making time to go regularly since the knee took precedence in my mind, and (b) the pain in my ankle was mostly on the inside, which is not the area where the torn tendons were from the MRI, which confused the therapist and I don't think she quite knew what to do with me.  But she did recommend that I go to an ankle and foot specialist (my doctor was a knee specialist) and see if I might get fitted with an orthotic device that could help.  I did.  And the ankle doctor had me take an MRI because she didn't trust the results of the 6-month old one, especially since the pain I described was on the opposite side of the ankle.  So I took another MRI (I've had four now, in the past year -- again, great medical system we've got here!) and although it didn't reveal much different than the old one, it did show some inflammation in the areas where I was having pain.  So the doctor convinced me to have a mold of my foot made and get custom orthotics that might prevent me from pronating away from the area of the original injury, which was creating pain on the inside of the foot.  The orthotics were $350, though, and not covered by insurance.  And I was still getting less hours (and salary) at my company than I could really live on.  But I spent the money and hoped for the best.  And you know what, it worked.  Something finally worked.  My ankle is better.  It's not healed, obviously (the tendons don't heal themselves), but the support that the orthotics provided did something miraculous and the pain just isn't nearly as strong as it was for 18 months since I stumbled on a rock on my first training run in August 2007.  The pain remains during a run, and after a run, but it's largely bearable, and at other times, there is very little pain at all, or not enough to complain about.  My medical insurance has paid tens of thousands of dollars on tests and doctors and surgeries (with another surgery to come) on my legs, and I've paid out of pocket probably $3000 in deductibles and co-insurance, and not a single thing helped.  But $350 orthotics (shoe inserts) that the insurance company refused to cover solved one of my biggest issues.  Real great system we've got here.

But I've digressed way off of running.  And I was mostly off of running this summer, during softball season, which was much more painful on my recovering knee than I expected (F Jan), making it really painful to even run most weeks.  But softball's been over for a while, I don't go back to my doctor until October 1st for his decision on my next surgery (likely a scope to look inside and see what's wrong), so for the past several weeks, I've been in training again for a 5K.  The Dunellen Run for Education that I participated in for three straight years between 2005 and 2007 is taking place this weekend in Dunellen, NJ, and I intend to race.  I run with large braces on my left knee and right ankle.  My knee is still killing me, probably worse than at any time since the early spring (obviously, the running training is aggravating the problem) and the ankle still hurts during the runs.  The training itself has been largely ineffective -- I haven't had a single 5K training run timed under 28 minutes.  And even though cardiovascularly, I think my stamina is up to speed, I really can't run any faster on my bad knee and ankle without excruciating pain.  The fastest I've even been able to run a single mile has been just over 9 minutes.  The last time I ran a 5K, I averaged under 8 minutes per mile.  This time, I'd be ecstatic if I got under 9 for a single mile.  And that's slow.  Like, finishing with the old folks slow.  And I didn't want to race because of that.  But I'm going to.  '

I've spent three years waiting for the chance to run another 5K.  Three years of horrible, debilitating pain in my legs.  Three years of countless doctors' appointments, a horrible, painful surgery and recovery, thousands of dollars out of my pocket, all so that I could run again, like I had in 2006, relatively pain-free.  I'm not there yet.  I don't have much hope that I'll ever get there.  But I'm going to run this weekend.  Slow, very slow, watching old men and little kids fly past me.  But I'm not going to care.  I just want to race.  And for 28 and a half minutes (I hope!), I'll ignore the pain.

Comments

[Jan Aronson]

Just be sure you're 100% for The Big Rounder Machine 2010 softball season....nice nice.......

[LegFuJohnson]

Boo Yah!

I'll take the over.

[Bill]

I must warn you that I did run under 28 minutes (barely) on my final training run last night. So the under is looking solid right now.

[Jan Aronson]

I would take the over as I expect The 2010 Rounder's to improve on their 2009 18-13 record.

[arthur]

hi there
i suffer from the same ankle problem
the inside of it kills mainly after a ran
its been like that fro 2 years now :(

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