BostonBound59

My initial recovery from Boston was much easier than expected and within ten days I was back to daily 60+ minute easy runs. Unlike my Boston qualifier in October 2008 (where I dragged for more than three weeks after the race) I felt literally no pain in the days after the race other than some expected soreness in my quads. By the end of April I had put Boston in the rear view mirror and turned my attention to the Mt. Washington Road Race on June 20 as well as picking a Fall marathon. Everything changed on May 2 when I headed out on an easy long run with a group of fellow Gate City Striders who regularly run on Saturday mornings in Hollis, N.H. While the 75 minute run was fun within a few hours I felt a sharp pain developing in my left knee when flexing it at 90 degrees and by the evening I could barely flex the knee at all without severe pain in my medial meniscus, exactly the spot where I underwent a partial knee meniscectomy in 2001. Not good news. Actually really bad news. I then missed 6 straight days of running (more than I missed in the previous 6 months) and after running just 30 minutes on May 9 and flying to Philadelphia for the day to watch Anthony run I could barely walk without pain after getting off the plane. I then spent the next week on the elliptical at my health club and while I'm now back to easy running the left knee pain, although not debilitating, is still present. My sister and her husband are both orthopedic surgeons and essentially told me I'm doomed (I'm slightly exaggerating) so I've been icing it several times a day, taking Advil and hoping its just a bad case of tendonitis and not a new tear. I'm still on track to run Mt. Washington on June 20 but it will be a challenge at best. Several other runners have told me that they have experienced similar delayed post-Boston injuries, the theory being that the injury may have occurred during the course of the 26 miles but doesn't actually manifest itself until several days or weeks later. We ran an easy 10 miles this morning and we are in NYC tonight bringing Anthony home from Columbia and will run long in Central Park in the A.M. so hopefully I'm back on the mend.