Back from the dead

It has been a year since I ran the Tupelo Marathon, which has the intimidating motto: "Trample the Weak, Hurdle the Dead." As the motto implies, Tupelo is a grueling run in searing heat, and can tackle the best trained athletes.

I hadn't run a marathon since the previous November, and had not been training as rigorously as I should have. I also had driven 14 hours from Florida to get to the race, and probably was not in any shape to run a marathon. But I'd driven all that way to make the cut-off, paid my fee and got my shirt. And I was determined to finish this marathon, to get that medallion, if nothing else.

I ran the first half nice and easy, at a slower pace than I've started out in previous marathons. I was heading into the second half at a comfortable pace I hoped to maintain and finish at around the four-hour mark.

Well, right around mile 20 I threw a major brick. I seized up, my right hip socket seemed to go out of place. The pain shot up and down my legs. I couldn't move.

But I finished the race, with a personal worst of 5 hours, 35 minutes or something abysmally close to that. And I got my damned finisher's medallion.

I spent the next day hobbling around Tupelo, checking out where Elvis was born and looking for some good BBQ. Next day, I drove to Memphis, where I found the best BBQ in my life: Interstate BBQ. Even got to meet the BBQ god himself, Jim Neely.

And for a year since I have suffered for my sins, with unimaginable sacro-iliac pain. My inept doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong with me, and I couldn't run. I gained 20 pounds. I felt miserable.

Finally, an MRI revealed I had disk protrusion at L4-L5, where I'd had back surgery 13 years previously. I'm fortunate that I bounced back from the microdiskectomy and was able to run and bike and stay active all these years.

But now I face the specter of never running again. My new doc (a former team doc for a big midwestern college) says no more marathons. Hang those medallions on the wall and take it easy. Sounds reasonable.

But if I give in, won't I become one of the trampled over? I've been on anti-inflammatories for a month, and been stretching and strengthening with ashtanga yoga. Yes, the right leg tingles, and the pain is still there in the lower back, but I've been slowly able to run again little by little. Four miles a day, every other day for the last few weeks, and today I ran my first 7.5, with causeways!

I feel better than ever, and plan to run at least one more marathon before I hang up my shoes for good.

Am I crazy, or is this just the exhilaration one feels bouncing back from the dead?