Road to Chicago 2025 was not easy.
As I mentioned in my previous post, last year I got injured by prolonging my training cycle for a couple of weeks and running really fast. Since then, it has been mostly downhill. Pain in my buttocks while sitting, shooting pain down the leg, stiffness in my hamstrings, and probably lower back problems. But it’s hard to say because doctors at Kaiser are absolutely useless. Same with their PTs. A year later, they finally agreed to do an MRI, and it actually showed that I might have issues with my L4 L5 spinal discs. They said it’s nothing, but the AI reading from the MRI suggested it might be the reason for my injury.
Anyway, for the whole year, I wasn’t able to run fast. Easy miles were okay. I just want to let you know that while having an injury like mine with pain might seem like I need a break from running, actually it’s better not to stop. Hamstrings shouldn’t get lazy, you need to maintain effort to keep them active but not hurt them. Don’t stretch them, but strength training is good, and they still need to run. So I was running at extremely low effort but with big mileage all year.
When I reached August, it seemed like my legs were getting better but not good enough. The idea was to drop mileage and pick up speed. In theory, it was supposed to work perfectly. In reality, my legs were not ready, neither to drop mileage nor to run fast. I started doing faster workouts with the team, and actually, it felt okay, but my body wasn’t the same. I couldn’t control my effort, it was like I didn’t understand how much power I was sending to my legs. They felt like I couldn’t control them. I managed to do workouts, but something felt off.
Chicago was getting close. I was able to run 4:20 to 4:30 pace but nothing close to 4:10 to 4:15. I knew that by Chicago I probably wouldn’t be able to handle all those things, but I hoped the taper might help. I had never been in a situation like that and never felt anything like it before, when you can’t push, can’t control, can’t feel your legs. You know you have the energy, you have everything, but it’s not going down to your legs.
So I decided to give it a try in Chicago and see where I stand.
Actually, before the race everything was perfect. I dropped the mileage, had a great taper, nutrition was amazing, rest and sleep were great, recovery and weather too. Everything went perfectly; I should note that. My goal for the race was to try to focus and stay in control. It’s hard for me to focus, I get distracted so easily, and when I do, I lose the pace. I was wearing two watches: Apple Ultra 3 and Coros Pace 3. I used the virtual pacer on the Ultra 3 and set it to 2:58 hours and 42.400 km distance.
The first 10K went okay. I was behind my goal by about a minute or so. I was surprised I could hold the pace, but my legs felt weird. I kept trying to focus and stay on pace. At some point, I started slowing down for no reason. I had a bottle with Maurten drink and gels, energy was good, but my legs just started losing it. The Apple Watch was extremely helpful, as the pace was very accurate. At some point, I decided I wasn’t going to look at the watch, just run as fast as I could. I felt amazing, not tired, no pain, but I just couldn’t run faster. No matter how I tried, my legs wouldn’t move. I’ve never experienced something like that before, when you’re full of life and energy, but you just can’t fly. I’ve hit the wall before, been in pain before, experienced everything during my marathon journeys, but not that.
I was slowing down, and at some point, I was really afraid I’d just stop and wouldn’t be able to move again. Finishing the race still not understanding what was happening felt sad. I mean, I know I have an injury, but this whole experience doesn’t really add up with hamstring tendinopathy. I’m more concerned it might be something in my spine that’s causing these problems. I’m glad I was able to finish but also extremely sad that I still can’t figure out what the problem is. It feels like I’m doing everything I can: PT outside of Kaiser, strength training, swimming, rolling, every recovery tool you can imagine, sauna, and so on.
At some point, I think I do see improvement from the middle of the year, but it is slow. What I really like about the situation I’m in now is that I finally realized you must trust yourself much more than doctors. At the beginning, everyone kept saying I needed to stretch more. In general, I can’t stretch, and it’s something I’m very bad at, so their assumption was always that my problems came from that. Even though this injury is exactly the kind where you cannot stretch your hamstrings at all. I also realized that I really have a lot of experience, and if some people like doctors or coaches think something is better for me and I don’t, most likely I am the one who is correct. Running fast is a privilege, but being able to rest and recover is the real privilege. I’m also really grateful to have the feeling that I truly want to run fast again. I came a long way from being afraid to run fast to now, when I can’t wait to be healthy and run fast.
Pictures: chalo_films https://www.steadyarchives.com https://www.ahmedcherkaoui.com
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