Hot Chocolate Run, Here I Come!

“You know that we’re not talking about normal knees, right?”

That’s how the doctor began his conversation with me after I explained to him how the pain I’d been feeling in my leg had started out as knee pain but had then migrated down towards the calf/ankle area.

As soon as he said that, I was reminded of the time eleven years earlier I went to get an x-ray of my knee after I’d been hit by a car while out riding my bike. After the x-ray, I was told to sit in the waiting area so that the radiologist could make sure that he didn’t need any more x-rays. As I sat there, a man in a white coat holding an x-ray in his hand came running down the hallway to see me. Once he confirmed that I did, indeed, belong to the knee whose x-ray he held in his hand, he said, “How do you feel?”

“Well,” I said. “My knee is sore, but I don’t think it’s anything serious.” He looked at the x-ray, and then down at my knee. Then he told me to stand up and take a few steps, which I did. He then looked at the x-ray one more time, then at me before he turned and walked away, down the hallway, shaking his head as he went.
It turns out that he was surprised by where my kneecaps were in relation to the rest of leg parts. He was worried that I had turn my patellar tendon but in reality, I have a condition called “patella alta.” in layman’s terms, it’s also referred to as “not normal knees.”

So I knew where the doctor was coming from. And I expected the worst. On the table behind the doctor was a model of the knee. I kept glancing at it, expecting him to pick it up to illustrate a point. And I know from experience that doctors don’t pick up the models to tell you that everything’s working fine.

But the doctor didn’t pick up the model. And he didn’t make me get any x-rays. And most importantly, he didn’t tell me to stop running. He diagnosed me with a calf injury, advised me to stretch regularly, and then sent me on my way. “Keep running,” he said. Which means that I now have a clean bill of health for next month’s Hot Chocolate Run. If only my sore leg knew that there was nothing wrong with it.

Time seems to have been flying by lately and just as I still can’t believe that the calendar has turned to November, I can’t believe that the Hot Chocolate Run is less than a month away. I also can’t believe that this race has become so popular that the organizers have had to find a bigger place for the start/finish than what they had last year on Strong Avenue. But this has become quite a community event—so many people I know participate in it—so maybe I shouldn’t be all that surprised.
And now that I’ve been cleared to race, I can start obsessing over the little race details. Will my kids want to run with me again this year? If they do, I can’t push myself to set a time, because I’ll have to stay with them. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Will the weather hold out? Last year it was 13 degrees when I woke up on race day. Will I get some hot chocolate this year? Last year I ran/walked with my then-five-year-old, and we finished fourth from the last. And the only liquid chocolate available was far from hot.

But the bottom line is, I’m pumped and looking forward to getting ready for the race.