Running

This blog is about running. But for readers who dislike running, fear not, this may not go the way you anticipate.

I never used to like running at school. I felt I wasn’t really built for it, and wasn’t fit enough to enjoy it. When I left school I didn’t really do any running until I started work and my workmate/friend Dave encouraged me to play five a side football with him and some other workmates. You don’t really notice the running much when you’re trying to hit a football! 

After playing football happily for a few years, but never really running much just for running’s sake, I had a minor setback. In 2008.  I felt a sharp pain in my left hip. I tried various things, including acupuncture, resting it, and massage. But nothing seemed to fix it. When I eventually went to have an X-ray (via a Doctor’s appointment) I found out it was a Femoroacetabular Impingement. We’ve all had one of those haven’t we? It means there was a bit of bone growth or spur on the top of my left hip joint. Every time I swivelled on it, which I did a lot during football, it was rubbing away part of my cartilage, and causing a lot of pain.

The doctors were against surgery, but in the end, we went for it. I can’t remember why we decided to go for it, but we did. After the operation, the Doctor in charge told me something along these lines: “The operation went well, but you’ll never run again. You might not even walk properly again actually, unless you do the strengthening exercises the Occupational Therapist will prescribe.”

At this stage, I was surprised, as he’d told me before the operation, that everything would probably be fine afterwards. But to tell me I might not even be able to walk again was a bit of a shock. In fact, I think he was just trying to tell me how important the strengthening exercises were. Well, I wanted a full recovery, so I did all the exercises as mandated, and was walking properly 4-5 weeks later, after getting by on crutches for a bit.

But I was still frustrated at the Doctor telling me I’ve never run again. So I built up my running bit by bit. I’ll show you, Doctor!! I had to start from the beginning but did a bit of running each day or every other day. Due to meeting my partner Kate, who skillfully educated me in the ways of healthy eating, and my friend Rich, who used to run with me when we saw each other, I built up my running and fitness levels and started loving it.I even did a trilogy of half marathons from 2011 to 2013. It even helped with my fitness for playing football.

About this time, I decided to call the Doctor who operated on me. I left a message with his staff, in which I basically asked why he told me I’d never run again after my op. A week or so later, I got a letter from him in which he said cryptically “I told you what you needed to hear”.

Sometimes, that’s all that’s needed. A friendly word of advice to steer your unconscious in the right direction… 

And another thing to take from this story: Sometimes people will tell you that you can’t do something. Sometimes they might mean it, but do they really know? We should listen to all advice, and then make up our own minds as to whether we can do something or not…

If you want to talk to me about your “something you have always wanted to do, but never have (yet)”, to see if we can steer your unconscious in the right direction to accomplish this,  please get in touch to arrange your free, no commitment consultation here: 

https://paulhradek.co.uk/contact/

See! I told you it wasn’t really (just) about running…You can make your own mind up about that, and take from this story what you want to.

Stay tuned for part two of my running blog, where I discuss the abuse I’ve received whilst running, how I turn it into a game, and how running isn’t really physical for me at all anymore.

Paul