Knees

About twenty-five years ago,  I was nine miles into a twenty mile training run along the Santa Ana River trail.   I was on the dirt road that runs parallel to the asphalt bike trail, just reaching that runner’s high that comes after an hour of running.  It was a beautiful spring day and I was minding my own business, getting ready for the L.A. Marathon.   As an older gentleman sped by on an obviously expensive racing bike … in full cycling togs … he shouted, Hey!   That will ruin your knees, you know.   I probably flipped him off.   I thought of the old guy Tuesday morning when I woke with pain on my right knee cap.  It wasn’t too bad walking or going upstairs but coming downstairs was a real hobble.   If you’ve lived in a two story house, have you noticed how often the things you want and you aren’t on the same floor?  Well, it happens more as you age.  Today, my knee is feeling a little better.   At sixty-seven, knee pains come and go.  Maybe the old guy was right.

In my forties, I never really believed my body would wear out.  I didn’t think I’d ever have those aches and pains that my Mom and Dad complained about.  I took better care of myself than they did.   I exercised.  I was a marathoner, for Pete’s sake.   But I have them, and not just in my knees.  If I had known then what I know now, I’d probably have still been a runner.  I got a lot of pleasure from my running and especially from doing marathons.   My doctors have told me I have a very strong heart as a result of my working out.   I suppose a strong heart is worth a few sore knees.  I don’t know.  There’s no undoing the past anyway.

So, what’s the point of this post?  I like to think it’s not a complaint but just one of those Reflections I promise in this blog’s subtitle … you know, from an Older Perspective.  If I could speak to that arrogant forty-something runner on the trail those many years ago, I’d tell him not to flip off the old guy on the bike.  I’d say, At least consider that he might be right.  If you’re going to run, accept that you may have bad knees later.  Maybe that’s what his post is about … acceptance.  I wish I’d learned acceptance … the ability to go with the flow of life … sooner.  It would have made me a happier forty-year old.   If I hadn’t learned acceptance by now, though, I suspect I’d be a bitter old soul instead of an occasional curmudgeon.

If you’ve still got Younger Eyes, it’s never to soon to start.

Explore posts in the same categories: feeling older

Tags: acceptance, curmudgeonly rants, feeling older, Life, marathons, mindfulness, postaday, running

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