My knee feels OK

  • Friday, November 16, 2012
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Finally I run.
The knee feels promising and it looks normal. Please God let this be the case. I need to run, my sanity is at stake. I feel emasculated by being sidelined and it's frustrating, I'm getting very, very grouchy...
This will be a Mudroc run simply for the reassurance of having good grip in the black mud that is lying deep on the trails. I'm nervous of getting a twist from slipping. I have 45 minutes to sundown which is perfect, I don't want to go more than four miles until I'm sure my knee is good.
I run one of my standard woodland loops, this is a good thing, it is beautiful especially at this time of year and day. The sun is huge and round and red and a soft mist lies in the low fields. It is cold enough to feel fresh but not bitter. I run past a pond and along the brook before the path rises into the auburn trees. I reflect that although I loved my cliff top run I would soon get bored if it was my regular gig, I love the ever changing, sensory nature of creation where I live and run.
Post run my knee feels OK, We'll see, I know my body well enough to know that it may be 24 hours before I can be sure.

Drinking my own mushroom laced urine

  • Thursday, November 15, 2012
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I really should not have stayed silent for so long. Truth is my knee has been a venomous swollen wreck and I'm not 100% sure why. Running has been off the agenda for the last two weeks.
The ancient inuit have a shamanic practise of drinking urine that has been passed after eating the hallucinogenic mushroom Amanita muscaria. The mushrooms are purported to have healing powers along with their hallucinogenic properties. I have tried various remedies for this knee now. Prayer didn't work. Neither did ice and rest. Compression has had some effect. However, the beautiful red and white Amanita mushrooms grow in much of the Kent woodland in which I run and desperation may yet drive me to drinking my own mushroom laced urine in search of a cure!
I like to be honest with myself and this injury has tested my objectivity. Being a minimalist runner is important to me for a variety of reasons not the least of which is my lack of serious injury for well over three years now. If this is a running injury, then damn, it's undermining what I believe to be the healthiest way to run.
You see, I don't think this is a running injury. I am convinced it came from an over competitive volleyball game, making a diving save on the knee on a hard floor. At no point while running did I feel even a twinge before the knee turned into a stiff Frankenstein like lumpen mass. It has had a tendinitis type feel to it and I've even wondered if there is a rogue bit of cartilage floating about.
I hope I'm not fooling myself.
Yesterday was a perfect autumn day, sunny and bright and looking out over the woods from school I made myself a promise that I would be returning to them soon.
I may be looking for mushrooms...

We discuss flag bearing

  • Sunday, November 04, 2012
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 I go for a kickstart run with Jerry. We have both had interesting and busy Octobers and mileage is down.
We have the near perfect run under a piebald sky of blueblack rain clouds and bright sunshine. The mud is deep and cold, the woods old and familiar. This is our natural habitat and we are in our element.
We discuss flag bearing or carrying a battle standard, how very often, in battle, the standard bearer continued to keep the colours aloft even when mortally wounded. We use this as an analogy to reflect incompetence in the corporate world, too often an inept leader continues to carry the standard/ idea even when they are exposed as wrong or out of touch. Time and time again they get to their feet and stagger on regardless. In a way you have to admire their commitment although their values are wrong. Eventually they take fire from their own side as well as the enemy and they are very hard to remove. A total waste of energy and resources and everyone loses.
Having got this off our chests we part for home, I feel much better, the combination of running and philosophy is a good one.