I completed the C25K over a year ago and dearly love running now. I look forward to it, I get grumpy if I can't for whatever reason and I go on about it all the time.
I'm 47 years old, have never been very active and thought I'd never be able to run 5K until I followed this program to the letter and as you see, it really works.
At my peak I've been doing 30K per week in the form of a 15K, a 10 and a 5 each week.
Sadly now it seems the rug is being pulled from under me and the thing I have come to love is being snatched away.
I've been suffering injuries, I have rested and healed only for something similar to occur.
I have had gait analysis and have the proper gear and supports but after an x-ray and physio it seems my knee has fluid on it as well as the onset of arthritis. This is making it impossible for me balance properly on that leg so everything below it is doing much more work. This results in pain down all sides of the lower leg and around the ankles.
I'll keep going physio but I fear that's it for me. Beaten by age I feel. Just when I thought I'd found a new passion.
I have an MRI booked but I don't hold out much hope. Just one of them things I guess.
Sorry, just feeling sorry for myself. enjoy it while you can.
Written by
DeanP
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Your chronological age is probably below the average for this forum, so don't think that you are too old. I sympathise with you and would hope that your physio can get you sorted. It may be worth getting a second opinion.
Gosh that is incredibly hard.... I do think that you would benefit from seeing a very good sports osteopath. I had reactive arthritis when I was in my 30's ( I'm 46 now) and it has left me with stiff everything!!! But my osteopath has said to me that there are very few people who he would say shouldn't run, and has brutal exercises that help... I don't know if this helps as I'm not in your situation but one of my life mantras is, ' never give up,' and I would encourage you to explore your options... I'm so sorry it's such a hard time for you right now....
I think it's also made worse by the fact that my evangelising about running has recently inspired a couple of my younger work colleagues to join me at the park runs, only for me to have to watch from the sidelines.
To add insult to injury, they are much faster in the first ever 5K's than I ever have been!
You should be ecstatic that you have inspired people to start. That is a massive achievement in itself...
Follow the advice here and get to a sports physio... I went and saw one following a car accident as a normal physio and doctor told me I would have back pain for the rest of my life. Didn't accept that and now I am more than 95% clear of back and neck pain....
You're right and I know it, I really do. I'm not really competitive but try telling them that! Even though they are half my age they take great delight in beating my times. I wouldn't care if they didn't seem so smug about it!
Will have to save up to see a sports physio though. I'm grateful for the NHS at the moment.
Really hope you can find a solution so your new passion can stay a lifelong one. Good luck with the treatments.
Sometimes it does take a bit of a pity party to be able to move onwards and upwards - getting all the fears and frustrations out of you where they don't help.
I'm just reading Footnotes by Vybarr Cregan-Reid and he quotes some scientist/clinician who said it is very rare for musculo-skeletal things to put the kybosh on running permanently (more usually neurological stuff)
A ray of hope then? It took me half an hour to do my usual 10 minute walk to work today. Am trying to stay positive but as you can imagine I'm in a dark place right now.
So sorry to hear of this - one can hope that the knee problem can be fixed. Given there are other issues apart from your gait, I don't know if this will help but might be worth a try.
When I started C25K I finally got round to seeing a brilliant chiropodist who does podiatric manipulation. My wife had been badgering me to see him for 20 years, would you believe? When my daughter was about 6, her feet splayed out when she walked, and the assistant in the shoe shop said "Oh dear, she's a bit '10 to 2' isn't she?" and recommended this chiropodist. He performs a very simple treatment, and it's a once off. He places a vibrating pad on your foot just to relax the muscles, and then manipulates your foot with his hand and resets the bones. It takes 20 minutes maximum. After my daughter was fixed, my wife had hers done (her feet pointed inwards rather than outwards). She told me the difference was absolutely amazing - for the first time, her foot went flat on the ground instead of resting too much on one side. Frankly I was sceptical that such a thing would work so ignored it and was in denial about my foot. If I spent a day on my feet (e.g. going out to London for the day) they would ache, but I just put that down to tiredness. However, on starting C25K I reckoned it was worth a try. It was every bit as amazing as my wife had said 20 years ago! If only I'd listened to her! I found then I could walk for miles without any discomfort, no pain. The only problem was in the first week I got a blister on the part of my foot that hadn't rested properly on the ground for 59 years! A few weeks back I had an office move and was rushing about up and down stairs, hefting computers etc the whole day, and felt no tiredness at all, and then did a week 7 run in the evening.
As you mentioned you had had gait analysis and supports, I wonder if this might be the cause of some of the other issues? The chiropodist said it wasn't necessary to have orthotics after his treatment. He's not out to make a fast buck - it was a one-off treatment for £51 and he said he didn't believe in asking people to come back as it should be fixed in one go.
Now, this man is well-known around where I live (Abingdon), but some people have said he is a rare breed - perhaps unique - he just seems to understand feet so well that he's able to fix them (e.g. one of my wife's friends had a child with flat feet. In 20 minutes he fixed that - the child had arches, and his shoe size went down instantly by one size).
Here's the website - if it's within reasonable reach for you he's definitely worth a go. Very nice man as well. He also looks after a professional football team.
Wow, thanks for your story Iain. That's not too far really, I'm in Warwick.
I really don't know, my feet are pretty much at 12:00. I did over pronate on both though and was getting a different type of injury from this in both legs last year. The shoes have helped with that. They are just off the shelf, nothing custom but are what was recommended for my gait.
I can see the problem quite plainly, I can't balance on the one leg without wobbling all over the place. Obviously when running, you do a lot of balancing on one leg at a time so this is putting a lot of strain on that leg. The physio recons it's the knee that's unstable but maybe seeing a podiatrist wouldn't hurt. I'll certainly keep that link handy.
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I've finished - I can't believe it! Feel great :-)
It really is mental!
W9R3. I actually did it! 
I think I might just do it....
Hmmm! Finishing week 7 [UPDATED]
