Berberian's Blog

The 10K from hell

Today was the Bolder Boulder.  On Friday night I started getting sick – one of those sinus infections that turns your head into a giant throbbing toe.  By Saturday I could only stare at the TV – but I was determined that if I watched enough TV, slept and took lots of meds I’d be better for the big 10K.

This morning I woke up at 6:14am – my head was throbbing but I wasn’t going to let Renee know – she would force me not to run; plus the entire family was excited to go do this race.

You know you shouldn’t be running when you start off your day with 3 extra strength Tylenol, 3 Sudafeb, a whiff of Afrin nose spray, a shot of Robitussin, and a Halls cough drop.  T-shirt, shorts, shoes, bib – I was ready to do this thing.

I ran with my brother-in-law (he had a spinal fusion 6 months ago so he wasn’t going anywhere fast) – I finished in 1 hour 13 minutes +/- (actually plus) 5 minutes.  Every second was agonizing.

My knee didn’t hurt at all – guess all I needed was something to distract me.  My head is still throbbing – I’d go to bed but it hurts too much to lay-down.  Well I did it.

The Big 10K

Monday is the Bolder Boulder, the nation's largest 10k which every runner is timed (2^nd largest in just sheer numbers). I used to run this race almost every year before my accident in 2003. Anyhow, I signed up to run this year – I expect it will take over 80 minutes. I've increased my running to 40 minutes with minor knee pain. My challenge will be to find the perfect pace to keep the knee happy and functioning. I have this odd condition when it comes to running without a kneecap – if I run too slow the knee acts up really quickly; if I run too fast the knee is fine but I can't slow down without the knee locking up (I just can keep up a fast pace for that long). In both cases when I stop I can barely walk. It's kinda like that Kaos agent (I think Leadside) in the old Get Smart series – Maxwell Smart was looking for an agent that couldn't walk, so he naturally thought this evil doer would be confined to a wheelchair – turns out the man couldn't walk but he could run. The final scene: the Kaos agent runs into the building, sits in his wheelchair and is apprehended by Smart. On Monday, I hope I don't turn into Leadside.

The Kinetics 5K

Last night I asked my daughter, Marlo, if she wanted to run the 5K Kinetics race – she said yes but she didn't want me to hold her back (you know because she is young and healthy and I am old and lame). So this morning we woke up at 6:30 (uggg) and trekked over to the registration desk and starting line at the Boulder Reservoir. It was cold when we got there but warmed up over the day. The race started at 9am sharp and after my first two steps I realized I shouldn't be wearing my gloves, fleece jacket and beanie. So I managed to jam the gloves and hat into the jacket pocket and tie the jacket around my waist all without tripping over the other 999 runners. I was, however, now thoroughly uncomfortable having all that stuff bouncing around my waist (also jammed in the jacket were my wallet, cell phone and keys). Marlo decided to run ahead – she was certain she was going to beat the one knee cap man. About a mile into the run I see Marlo, huffing and puffin and I slowly catch up to her (all kids always jet out and then regret their decision). Now I had the upper hand – but she hung with me and 32 minutes and 11 seconds later we finished. No pain in the knee – Marlo did great. Not too may 12 year olds like to run in these races. Next up the Bolder Boulder (distance: 10K might be a problem).

Knee Stuff

For those of you that don’t know – I was in a bad car accident in 2003 and really messed up my right leg. I had my patella (kneecap) removed, rods inserted into my tibia and femur, which included several deck screws to hold stuff in place, I lost the small artery that runs down the leg, and month later I had a silver dollar size chunk of my femur excised through my quadriceps. I haven’t really talked about my injuries much because – well there are so many people out there with worse stuff – it just feels like I’m complaining. 

Every now and then I search the web for “patellectomy” and come up with virtually no results.  I’m basically looking for folks who have had a similar injury and how they are coping without a kneecap.  My conclusion is – not a lot of people have this procedure – generally it is considered kind of a last result to alleviate knee pain when the knee is relatively in tact (with very mixed results from what I can tell) and in most injuries some of the patella is generally salvageable.  I had three orthopedic surgeons care for me during my recovery and none of them ever did a complete patellectomy.  Well my first surgeon can now say he’s done one, the other two can at least say they had a patient that had one. So for the .00001% of you that don’t have a patella, I’m going to blog about my experiences.

This is also my cheap version of SEO to get my blog at the top of a Google search.  I’m sure this one post uses the word patellectomy more than any other site. Patellectomy, patellectomy, patellectomy, patellectomy, patellectomy, patellectomy – now it does.