Just Another Runner’s Story December 2020 By Gale Fischer
Managing Running’s Aches and Pains "My body could stand the crutches but my mind couldn’t stand the sideline.” --- Michael Jordan
Although running is an enjoyable activity for most who participate, it does not come without its share of physical pain. Beginning and experienced runners alike are familiar with the muscle soreness that is common in the midst of and the hours and days following a run. Most of us come to recognize normal running pains and learn to deal with these through stretching, icing, warm baths with Epsom salts, and recovery time. It is not always easy to define a pain as typical versus something more serious. Some of the inconsistencies that come with identifying soreness as acute may come from denial that the discomfort is actually a manifestation of a more serious injury. The mental aspect of running can become quite complex with individuals moving through stages. There are instances when one may ignore an injury and continue to run through it. Another common stage involves a longing to keep running, playing tug of war with the fear of risking a long-term or permanent leave from the sport if a hiatus from running is not taken and the injury is not properly taken care of. Simply stated, dealing with a running injury will present itself more times than not as an issue of the mind rather than an issue of the body. Longtime runner, Stacey Newton knows all too well the havoc that an atypical running injury can create for one’s mental and physical state.
Like many adults in the running community, Stacey’s running career began as a student-athlete. “I ran track and cross country for Jackson Lumen Christi in the mid-90s, four years as a member of the track team and two years for cross country.” Although cross country wasn’t a consideration for Stacey early on, long distances became her forte on the oval as a participant in the mile and two-mile for her track team. It wasn’t as if Stacey didn’t enjoy the longer distances but initially, she was more interested in playing basketball which occurred the same season as cross country. She would soon discover that her physical stature wasn’t ideal on the hardwood. “I had tried other sports but was too short for basketball and running seemed to be a sport that I was good at.” Stacey would enjoy individual and team success as a cross-country runner, qualifying for the state meet with her teammates her junior year and accomplishing her goal of breaking the twenty-minute barrier on a cross-country course. Although running became a huge part of her life as a high school student, she stepped away from running after graduation.
Running seemed to take on a part of her life as a teenager but her passion for the sport was not strong enough to keep it going as a young adult, Stacey would find her way back to an active lifestyle a little more than a decade later. “I started running again in 2009. Some friends of mine had started running. They wanted to do a half-marathon. I knew that I wasn’t ready to run a half-marathon but I knew that I could run a 5k.” Stacey soon realized the benefits of running as a young mom when she returned to the sport. “I had given birth to my youngest child just before I picked up running again. I noticed that the baby weight started coming off and this motivated me.”
The loss of baby weight from her body propelled her back into running but Stacey would soon realize that she needed to up her game to keep the thrill going. Running the 5K distance had satisfied her hunger as a teenager and now as a young mom but she began to crave something more. “Eventually 5k races were becoming boring so I decided to try a half-marathon. The summer of 2010 I started training for the Detroit International Half-Marathon.” Her experience in Detroit was a source of satisfaction with her performance giving her a boost of confidence to stick with the endurance distances. “I ran a 2:05. I felt great after my first half and wanted to run another one. I wanted to run a faster time. My half-marathon PR came at the Borgess Half-Marathon in 2017 with a finishing time of 1:58.”
Stacey continued to enjoy the half-marathon distance after her first at Borgess, with her desire to break the two-hour barrier fueling her fire for 13.1 miles, but she also decided to take the next logical step as a runner. “Crossing off a half-marathon from my bucket list was very satisfying but my friends influenced my decision to try a full-marathon. I had completed my first half-marathon and my friends had just completed a full-marathon. They wanted to do the Disney Challenge, in January of 2011 (half-marathon on Saturday and a full-marathon on Sunday), and of course, I wanted to complete it with them.” Stacey hadn’t followed a specific training plan and really didn’t push her pace for Disney. Finishing was enough initially but she felt the need to challenge herself after the Disney Challenge. “I felt great after my first marathon and decided I wanted to do some more. I hadn’t really followed a training plan for the Disney Challenge. My friends and I did a lot of walking and our finish time was more than six hours. I decided that I wanted to run another so I trained for the 2012 Detroit Marathon. My finishing time was 4:35.” Stacey’s current running resume includes ten marathon finishes with a PR of 4:35 at the Detroit Marathon in 2012 and a 50K finish on the Kal-Haven Trail.
After finishing her first marathon and then setting a PR a year later in Detroit, Stacey felt like she was finding her groove as a runner but she would find herself on the outside looking in following her performance in Detroit. “When I ran the Detroit Marathon in 2012 I had some issues with my knee. I thought it was my IT band. I did some stretching and strength training to try to solve this issue but the pain still lingered. I was still able to run through it. Chiropractor visits helped some. I tried inserts, cross-trained, and lost weight, but the pain was always there. I even stopped running for a few months but this still didn’t help.”
Stacey had patiently tried to deal with the pain she was experiencing but ultimately decided that it was time to schedule an appointment. “I finally went to see a doctor in 2018. The doctor prescribed physical therapy. I stopped running and began PT. I did PT for about ten weeks but this didn’t help much. I went back to the orthopedic doctor. He did an MRI of the knee and gave me a steroid injection which didn’t help.” Because of the lack of progress, Stacey’s orthopedic doctor sent her to a specialist. “My orthopedic then had me see a back doctor. He thought that it may have been a pinched nerve in the back that was the cause of my knee pain. He said that he couldn’t confirm if it was a pinched nerve unless he did surgery. His recommendation was to have surgery or deal with the pain.”
Stacey had no doubts that she would rather deal with the pain than go through surgery. She had been away from running for eight months. She was hopeful that an extended recovery would allow the injury to heal and that ultimately the pain would subside but more importantly she stopped running in fear that if she continued she would risk further damage to her body. The diagnosis from the back doctor gave her the confidence that although she might still experience pain from running, she would not be risking further damage.
The eight months away from running was difficult for Stacey mentally and emotionally, but she managed to keep herself immersed in the running community during this time. “The time off from running was difficult. I would go and volunteer at running events. This was helpful for me mentally. It was good in some ways but it was hard watching others run when I wasn’t able to.”
Giving of her time to the running community was something that Stacey had grown accustomed to long before injury forced her into an extended off-season. Stacey has an extensive volunteer resume that has allowed her to share her passion for the sport with others. She has served as a coach for Girls on The Run. She also has served on and continues to be involved with the committee for the Battle Creek Chapter of Kalamazoo Area Runners. Stacey has provided mentorship to many adult runners as a Fast-Track coach multiple times for the Battle Creek Chapter of the Kalamazoo Area Runners. As a pace leader for the Beyond training program, a training schedule leading up to the Battle Creek Half Marathon, Stacey has filled the roles of coach, motivator, and cheerleader. In her role as a pace leader, she became a permanent fixture on the roads of Battle Creek, leading groups of runners on Saturday mornings during the spring of 2017 while wearing a cast on her arm due to an injury to her pinky finger.
With the decision made to forgo surgery, Stacey began the process of rebuilding her strength and endurance as a runner. She realized that the ache in her knee would still be there but there was a sense of relief that there was finally a diagnosis and that there was no risk of further damage. “I decided to start back and deal with the pain in December of 2018. Gradually I built miles. I did shorter distance running and participated in some triathlons.” As Stacey’s body adjusted again to longer distances, the marathon bug began to bite again. “My friends wanted to run the Kalamazoo Marathon in 2020. I told them that I would run with them but I was sure that this would be my last marathon.”
Although she was back in the saddle, Stacey made some adjustments to her training and routine to manage the pain in her knee as she began to ramp up the distances of her long runs. “To manage the pain, I had scaled back my schedule, running just three days a week. I incorporated biking and swimming into my days off from running. I scheduled sessions with a chiropractor once a week.”
Stacey and her friends were in the midst of their training schedule in March of 2020 when the pandemic hit, seemingly altering the landscape of every facet of our world, including running and racing. Soon enough the Kalamazoo Marathon was canceled but Stacey remained steadfast to her training regimen while adding numerous virtual endurance events to her new racing routine that she created as a result of the pandemic. Her prediction of the Kalamazoo Marathon being her final marathon was way off base. It may have been a reinvigorated mind and body or it could have been her way of dealing with the pandemic that pushed her into an endurance runner’s extravaganza. “I have run four other marathons this year including Charlevoix (virtual), Grand Haven (in person), Chicago (virtual), and Honolulu (virtual). I also ran my first ultra, the Kal-Haven, a distance of thirty-four miles. Running all of these marathons and the ultra filled the void of the COVID shutdown.”
Although Stacey still is reminded of her aching knee daily it seems to have become more manageable. Her body has held up through the marathon bonanza over the last ten months. The combination of chiropractic adjustments, reducing her weekly running schedule to three days a week, cross-training, and a weekly barre blend workout, similar to ballet, has kept her in the game.
For many, running can become a routine that turns into a craving. Navigating injuries can become more of a mental challenge than a physical one. The mental extremes of denial and pushing through pain to refusal to continue running due to fear of causing long-term damage can wreak havoc on those with the strongest mental and emotional capacity. Stacey took the conservative approach for eight months but eventually returned to running while still experiencing knee pain that was more than normal running pain. The professional advice that she could return to running in pain with the reassurance of not doing any permanent damage gave her the green light to lace up her running shoes once again.
Everyone has a story. Stay tuned next month for another runner’s story.
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