Diary of an injured runner

[Bierzo Baggie]

Write a book? Don’t hold your breath…

Do people read books any more? I use 2 forums, this one and a quirky, nostalgic West Brom supporters forum. Not many youngsters on either and we all like to go on a bit! I’d have to get to Almeria first anyway… 
 
The knee is OK but it’s still sensitive. It clicks occasionally but these days most of me does. I’ve even got through a couple of games of futsal so it can’t be that bad.

Approaching 3 “runless” months now. The pause has given me time to hunt down several notebooks which I have used over the years to record runs, times and an estimate of distance. This is no spreadsheet and there are no signs of any particularly coherent plan. If anything we are talking about a crazy inverse plan. Run somewhere, record it and then years later look for a pattern. Have never used a GPS so at least initially I was more focused on time than distance and the distances recorded were always approximate in any case.

Found 6 exercise books in all. One is still missing. Inside are pages and pages of hastily scribbled numbers, calculations, times and later, fleeting observations, brief encounters and even the occasional doodle. Going through these notes and seeing how they have evolved is a fascinating, bizarre and slightly disturbing experience. More than a record of over 20 years of running it looks like the expression of some sort of obsessive-compulsive disorder requiring a few serious sessions of psychotherapy and a set of shiny pills.