Jerry Mabbott's Blog

A guy sold bagels at a stand for 50 cents. Every day a runner passed by and put 50 cents into the bucket without taking a bagel. One day the owner joined him. The runner said, "You want to know why I always put money in and never take a bagel?" "No, I just want to tell you that the bagels are now 60 cents."

I know so many runners. In fact my wife is a runner. Luckily she's not very fast because she almost got away from me three times. Seriously, Heather training for months in preparation for a marathon with the Hometown Heroes, who also raised money for The Huntsman Cancer Foundation. A great group of people with big hearts. They run for those who can't.

I decided that I should do more than help out at water stations, although the runners were so grateful that they always told me how thankful they were that I was there. I decided that wasn't enough. I was going to run! I used a couch to 5K which took you from no running at all to comfortably running a 5K in eight weeks. I did it and I could run about four and a half miles easily. 4.8280416560833 metric miles for my friends in other countries.

It was perfect and fun! I had signed up for a local 5K and I was very excited! I decided to take a practice run outside and I ran my 4.5 miles without a problem. Then came race day. My plan was to complete a couple of 5K races and move on to 10K and eventually a half marathon. Yeah, that was the plan.

So I ran the 5K. It was fun! My knees hurt afterward so I propped my legs up and alternated ice and hot rice bags. My right knee felt great after a couple of days but not the left one. It swelled up and hurt like someone had hit me with a baseball bat. I suspected Heather for a while but she was not amused.

I went to an orthopedist and he confirmed what I had hoped he wouldn't. Torn meniscus. Seriously?? My first short race?? So surgery and recovery and I was going to try it again. Then I took a tumble down our staircase and tore it again. Another surgery, but running is out of the question. Now I have an artificial knee so I can walk a mile or ride the stationary bike.

Oh well, at least I tried.

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