RUNNING WITH PAIN

I am convinced that if you are going to run competitively you are going to have to learn to run with pain. You might jog without it. You may even be able to make some long slow runs and enjoy every minute of them. It is a different story, however, if you are going to face real competition. Then you are going to have to suffer. It simply seems to go with the territory.

Sometimes it will naturally be worse than others. Your training schedule and the strength of the competition will have a lot to with this. Depending on the circumstances, it may vary from mild discomfort to the conviction that the ambulance is going to have to meet you before the finish line. Yet this is all a part Of running. Sometimes, especially in the older age groups, the difference between first and second is simply who is willing to suffer and endure the most on that particular day.

There is a difference between pain and injury. Some injuries do not allow any running at all. When that time comes you had better take your smart pills and allow your body time to recover. If you don't, you are likely to get in real trouble. There are, however, some times when even an injury is not that serious. Deciding when is the problem. My rule of thumb is very simple: If an injury begins to feel worse as I get into a run, I know I had better give it more rest. If, on the other hand, it feels no worse and perhaps even better as I run, then I am fairly sure that I can run through it... maybe with only a reduced schedule of both distance and intensity. If you don't make these decisions carefully, both you and your running will suffer more over time. An injury that could have lasted four weeks can easily turn into four months.

Masking pain is seldom wise for very long. We all need pain relievers at times; but it is very easy to forget those words "for the temporary relief of minor aches and pains". They are designed to relieve your discomfort while your body has time to heal. They are NOT designed to cover up jour pain so you can run faster and train harder. If you misuse them for very long, you are likely to pay a price.

Let me illustrate it this way: A red light appears on the dash of your car. It tells you that the oil pressure is gone or that the water has overheated. The red light disturbs you and you don't like it, so you put a piece of masking tape over it. Thus the red light is hidden; but the problem remains. Unless you do something quickly the damage to the motor would be hard to estimate.

That is the way it is with pain. Remember, it is your friend and not your enemy. It is only a warning, the red light of your physical system. It is not the problem. It is only a warning that there is a problem. When you mask the pain you have not solved the problem, you have only put masking tape over the warning light. It is no wiser with your body than it is with your car, except as a temporary solution until proper repairs can be made. This may be something that you can do yourself with rest and careful application of things you already know or it may require professional help; but whatever it takes, deal with the problem and not the "red light" alone.

Please do not think of this as an effort to give you medical advice, which I have no intention of doing. That is between you and the professionals. I deal only with the things I have learned by hard experience; and most of what I know about running has come just that way.

If you run well, you will have to deal with pain. How well you do it will determine what kind of runner you are. You can't make it all go away; but you can work with it both to avoid serious injury and also to make yourself a better runner. In that endeavor, I wish you well.