Toughing It Out

I'm haunted by the thought that I should have kept running through the pain during last November's NY Marathon (and thereby reach my goal time). Sure my right knee was putting me in terrible agony and I was worried that I was doing permanent damage -- but since it turns out that it was only a case of runner's knee and that after 2 days of being unable to walk and a week or so of taking it easy, all was fine. So did I wimp out too early and start walking?

The round-up in February's Runners World makes me think so. It's full of exhortations like "focus about the parts of your body that don't hurt (e.g. my index finger feels great!)" and quotes from folks who tell themselves they've been childbirth and the war in Iraq so "pain on a run is nothing that I can't handle." There were a couple of tips I'm thinking of trying:

• getting lost in an audiobook (instead of my usual music) so the miles fly by
• dedicating each mile to someone special - you wouldn't want to 'fess up to walking anyone's mile
• break the run into small pieces - just keep going to that next tree and then down the next hill, etc.
• see success - weight loss, a healthier me, etc.
• count blessings - remind myself that there are too many people who wish they had two healthy legs to run on