Michelle Goff, mystery writer

Last year, I participated in a 5k race. As someone who only runs away from snakes or toward treats, I walked the course and never considered attempting to so much as jog. But this year, I decided to train to run the race.

So I consulted several from-the-couch-to-a-5k training regimens, finally settling on one that began with three minutes of running and 30 minutes of walking until I reached a mile. The regimens also included several rest days, which I gratefully observed.

But on my training days, I’d perform stretches and warm-up walks and then run laps around my back yard like a hyperactive greyhound. I chose the backyard as my training ground because it afforded me privacy, which was important because I was secretly training. You see, I planned to surprise my family on 5k day. When the three minutes of running felt like three hours, I’d imagine their shocked and encouraging faces when they saw me running from the starting line.

That, combined with the numbers displayed by my faithful Fitbit, Esmerelda – Esme for short – kept me going when I wanted to quit. Indeed, it didn’t take long for me to increase my endurance, my distance, and my calories burned.

I was doing well. So well that I started ignoring the rest days. In fact, I ran for five consecutive days.

Excruciating knee pain kept me from running for six consecutive days. Actually, it’s kept me from running since.

Although I haven’t suddenly earned a medical degree, I believe I developed something called runner’s knee. As an overachiever, I have it in both knees. In retrospect, all those turns I took in my back yard couldn’t have been kind to my knees.

Of course, I didn’t immediately learn my lesson. For days after my self-diagnosis, I continued walking until I reached my daily step goal. To my defense, my right knee had started to feel somewhat better. The left one, however, continued to feel like it was on fire. Finally, after the pain woke me in the middle of the night, I submitted to the will of my knees. For the past few days, I’ve been adhering to the four components of RICE. Right this very second, I’m resting and alternating an ice pack and a compression wrap on my left knee, which is elevated.

RICE is helping. If nothing else, the compression wrap prevents me from walking at my normal pace. The worst part of this ordeal, though, is that I’m unable to exercise and it’s my own dumb fault. I have no one but myself to blame for not taking my rest days and for running laps around my back yard like a hyperactive greyhound.