I HAVE ONE BAD KNEE, and one good knee.  In fact, the same knee is just above my one bad foot.  The knee is bad, from running… more later.  The foot is bad from kicking black lava.  When all is right in my world there is no pain.  Today there is pain.

Dianna thought it would be fun to run home from Drew’s on a hot summer night back in 80something.  I quickly calculated that 7 miles was 6 miles more than I’d run ever then added in bonus miles based on her cuteness and multiplied it by 1000 because it was her idea.

Great let’s do it.

I felt amazing, for obvious reasons.

About 3 miles in I felt a twinge in my left knee, that was left unsaid.

5 miles in it really hurt, and I cheerfully ran on… for obvious reasons.

Over the years, I’ve picked up and put down running… each time leading to a twinge and a memory of that summer night.

A little trail running, around Whiting Ranch and up on Saddleback.

A few triathlons.

One of the first of Scott Tinley’s Dirty Adventures, I finished the swim last and finished the bike first and proceeded to run so slow volunteers were putting me back on the course instead of allowing me to finish… they wanted me to do another loop, figuring there’s no way that guy is done at that pace with that form… oh, I was done.  I wound up 2nd in my age group, but that was my last “long run”.

The left foot is bad thanks to immovable lava at Waimea Bay.  On my way up to dive, I clipped a rock.  It instantly hurt like hell.  Looking down, my baby toe was at a 90 degree angle.  I taped it up, kept diving.  Two years have passed and it’s just worse, flopping around like a mini rag doll and rolling over so the nail is on the ground.  I’ve started to tape it into place again… it kinda helps.

So there’s the background to why the knee and foot are tender today.

They both hurt because I’ve been lifting weights and pedaling a monstrous gear on my MTB – stressing the joints and muscles and tendons…

… It’s the off-season, and I want to be superstong next year like all the cool kids…

… I’m just not as cool as that one hot summer night…