Running with PA (was Re: New Member)

[Guest guest]

>

> The first sign of PA came when I was 30 years old after a cross

country race

> I was running.

> I had been training hard and running well. I had also been running

a lot more

> races than usual and doing more on the road so at the end of this

race I had

> a bit of a pain in my left heel.

> Over the next few months I was going for all sorts of physiotherapy

to try

> and get rid of this 'injury' but nothing worked.

,

My story is eerily similar to yours - started having problems with my

toes after a 10 mile race about 6 years ago, got progressively worse,

spread to my neck/back, took about a year to diagnose and get it

under control. I've been doing ok for the last 5 years - have done a

few 5k/10k races since then - but just haven't been able to really

get back into it. (Not entirely due to PA - you know how a job,

family, other commitments can get in the way!).

Just wondering - are you back to running? If so, has PA put any

limits on your distance? I'm 47 and would love to do a marathon (or

at least a 1/2 marathon) before hitting 50, but am wondering if the

disease will let me.

Anyone else have any running experiences while dealing with PA?

Randy

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 17/11/2006 01:30:53 GMT Standard Time, RFoust333@...

writes:

Just wondering - are you back to running? If so, has PA put any

limits on your distance? I'm 47 and would love to do a marathon (or

at least a 1/2 marathon) before hitting 50, but am wondering if the

disease will let me.

Hi Randy,

No I was still making the odd attempt at it, doing two or three miles (Just

goes to show. Before Arthritis I looked on doing any less that five miles a

session as a waste of time. lol) until about four years ago when I finally gave

up completely. I really miss it and as I am back in my home town in Scotland I

often see my team mates out training and I must admit I get jealous. lol

Lol I always said that when I hit the age of 30 I would start doing marathons

but at the age of 30 the PA decided to do a marathon on me! lol

I managed one half marathon which was quite funny looking back, although it

wasn't at the time.

The race was pretty hilly and I wasn't too fit but there was only about 40

runners in the field. About the 10 mile mark I was lying in sixth place but the

fifth place runner was so far ahead that I could no longer see him. When I

looked behind the seventh placed runner was also so far behind that I couldn't

see him either. It was the best part of the race for me though. It was on a flat

section and I felt as if I was flying at this point. We turned a corner and

there was a long stretch ahead and all of a sudden there was the fifth placed

guy in sight so that gave me some heart and I redoubled my efforts. We got to

about 1.5 miles from the stadium and I

had really pulled him in. I was only about 40 metres behind him. I thought to

myself, 'I'm going to catch him' At this point we started to climb again

towards the stadium and as we got closer to the stadium the hill became steeper.

So within 0.75 of a mile I went from saying to myself, 'I'm going to catch

him' to saying, 'I'm not going to finish!' lol I made it though but there is a

photo somewhere of me running round the track towards the finishing line and I

look as if I am walking, which I practically was by that time. lol Oh and I

didn't catch the fifth placed guy.

My Rheumy didn't stop me trying to run in the early days. All he would say

was that I would know when not to do it. Maybe that will be the case with you

Ran

dy. You will get a feeling of whether you will manage it and whether you will

do more damage or not. I would tend to say if you feel you can do it, go for

it but I have a feeling the greater number of members of the group will

disagree with me.

Good luck whatever you decide to do.