It gets better now? Right?

I went to the doctor Thursday. I have a sinus infection. Joy. She put me on some stronger antibiotics and told me that if I'm not completely better when they run out (2 weeks), I need to see an ENT specialist. Fun times.

On the up side, I really am feeling a bit better with the antibiotics. Better than I have in over a month, actually. Still not healthy, but hopeful that I am on my way.

I felt really, really awful Friday. I decided to put my long run off until Sunday because we would be at Ren Fest all day Saturday, and the antibiotics meant that I would not be drinking, so I wanted the extra day to let the drugs work.

I waited until it warmed up a bit to go run on Sunday (I was not about to run when I woke up and the temperature was in the 30s). At 1pm, the temperature was in the low 60s, and I decided that was the best possible temperature for running. It really was a good temperature.

The assigned distance was 8 miles, but I went ahead and mapped out a route where I could turn around and just do 6 if I wasn't feeling well. I mean, I've been really sick, and I hadn't run in a week, so I wanted to be careful. The 8 mile run left my apartment, headed to Memorial Park, did the loop there, and headed home. The 6 mile turned around without doing the loop.

At 3 miles, I felt like I could force my way through the full 8, and I really wanted to try, so I stopped to fortify myself with a gel and kept going.

A little after 4 miles, I started to feel some serious pain in my knee. I stopped and readjusted the IT Band strap and started again. The pain came back, so I slowed to a walk for a little bit before trying to force it back up to a run. Ten steps in, the pain was back. I repeated this set up steps several times before admitting that I might not be able to finish the run.

The pain was pretty severe, or I would have tried to run through it. The best I can guess, it was caused by a combination of not rolling out my IT Band often enough, not running for a week then doing a long distance, and doing a LOT of walking the day before the long run.

When I started this journey, my biggest fear was not being able to finish because of my knee, so you can imagine how much having to stop because of the pain freaked me out. The idea of trying to get through 10 miles next Saturday scares me for enough reasons without worrying that I'll be forced to quit less than halfway through because of my knee.

Anyway, back to the run - I was 4 miles from home and definitely not running, and I didn't have a phone with me, so I walked. Every so often, I would try the running again, but the pain always came back. Serious, stabbing pain.

I did eventually make it home. I have a nice blister on my heal because, apparently, the shoes that are great for running are maybe not so happy for long distance walking.

Today is my rest day, and I hurt all over. I've got runs planned Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and then the big 10 miles on Saturday. I hope I don't die.