Injury this and injury that.

Being a fat man who was transitioning into a runner has brought all kinds of pain to me and plenty of reasons to quit.  However, the sheer thought of quitting was never an option.  Up till now I had always been a quitter and had never followed through on any path that I has chosen.  This was different, I was motivated, to for once not be a failure. That my friends was enough, that and the fact that I thought every problem could be solved by more running.

I started out with the usual basic everyday pain like shin splints and muscle soreness from using things in ways my body forgot they could be used for. The shins were the worst and I had to deal with them on a daily basis for a good portion of my training until I got some half ways decent shoes to run in then they slowly dispersed. Next came the calves and knees, then a few rolled ankles, along with reoccurring hip issues, debilitating back spasms, and overuse injuries. Sure the pain hurt, but the run felt better. So did watching the numbers on my get smaller.  Since mid January this year I had been dealing with some more crazy knee issues, and then about two weeks before I was to participate in my first ever race, a 10K, which I will be posting a report of shortly. I had the great misfortune of incurring a hamstring injury or so I thought. I also thought that I was on the mend from said injury, but three days before the it came back, and hard. I rested and massaged, stretched and rested again but to no avail. The day before the race i was feeling pretty good and decided to have light run to get everything moving and any last minute issues dealt with, and after a half mile in it came back. I had to walk back home. The reason I bring this up is because all of the issues had one thing in common. They were being caused by my shoes, and I had no clue. I thought that the shoes I had been wearing  were of good enough quality to be running in, but they were in now way doing what they were supposed to be doing, they had let me down and I was in peril of not racing.  As much as this sucks I am glad that I saved my old shoes because it didn't hurt so much to run in them even with the injury and I would ultimately be able to race. This is just a short excerpt of the pain and injury that I have endured on my journey to be a runner, marathoner, ultrarunner. I felt that I needed a little bit of hardship, and since I now always look forward it is hard to remember the pain. I just didn't want there to be all sunshine and rainbows, and no rain because this has very rough at times.