First Run

I did not let a little light rain keep me from taking advantage of the green light Dr. Robles gave me yesterday afternoon!  By the time I had driven to Town and parked the car, the rain had diminished to a refreshing fine mist.  I started my watch and walked briskly up the Fifth Street hill, and then lurched into what I can only loosely describe as running, a decidedly unaccustomed activity after two months, but running nonetheless.  The area where the surgical mesh had been implanted felt fine, and my right knee felt fine.  So far so good.  I stopped and walked after one block. 

There was no mistaking how much fitness I have lost.  The only comparable experience is beginning to run a few days after a marathon, legs so heavy they might as well have weights wrapped around the ankles.  And after a mile or so, I realized that everything felt oddly stiff, as if I needed to apply some grease or WD-40 to all of my joints.  A similar phenomenon occurs when we park our Mini over the winter and start it up again (assuming the battery is not dead as it was this year); everything creaks and groans, and the brakes make an odd noise, caused by a light coating of rust building up on the rotors.  I was the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz.  "Where's my oil can?"

I was surprised to find when I had completed two miles that my average pace (including the walking breaks) was a little over 14 minutes.  And I even completed two 400-meter "intervals" - i.e., 400 meters of not walking - in 3:13 and 3:03 (a minutes slower than my goal pace a few months ago). 

If it sounds as if I am complaining, I am not.  I ran today!  A slow, patient, first run in the long road to recovery. And it was an absolute joy to enter these modest numbers in my running log for the first time since April 20.