Hi Jinx

The world of sports is full of superstitions, one of the more popular ones is the Sports Illustrated cover jinx: a myth that states that individuals or teams who appear on the cover of the magazine will subsequently be jinxed. Some examples:

• May 26, 1958: Race car driver Pat O’Connor appears on the cover. He dies four days later on the first lap of the Indianapolis 500.
• August 7, 1978: Pete Rose appears on the cover the same week that his 44-game hitting streak ended.
• October 11, 2003: In the midst of each league’s respective League Championship Series, both the Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox were featured on dual covers to that week’s issue. Both teams would go on to suffer great collapses.
• In January 2010, Brett Favre was on the cover with the headline “Favre on Fire” before the NFC Championship Game, which the Vikings lost (and there was much rejoicing in Chicago and Green Bay).

Why am I talking about the SI jinx here? Because I may have fallen victim to a less well known cousin, the RunnerDude Hex. Last Sunday, I was to be the “Runner of the Week” on the RunnerDude’s blog. Coincidentally, that was the day of the Rock ‘n Roll Chicago Half Marathon, which I ran with Brian R.

The race went well enough — with some urging along from me, Brian bettered his half-marathon personal record by 10 minutes! But since this was a “long run” weekend for me as I prepare for two fall marathons, my coach wanted me to add 5-7 extra miles. The insanely early 6:30 a.m. start time made it nearly impossible to squeeze in miles beforehand, so I opted to tack them off after the race.

Perhaps I should have run them immediately after we finished, but I was having a great time at the American Cancer Society DetermiNation tent and talking with friends I’ve met on Twitter, that I delayed the “bonus miles” till I got home. I didn’t think this would be any big deal for a few reasons:

• The half-marathon wasn’t that strenuous for me since the pace Brian and I ran was nearly 3 1/2 minutes per mile slower than my recent PR.
• I was planning on running the bonus miles at a slow, gentle pace.
• I’ve run “ultramarathon” relays where I had to stop and restart three to five times in less than 24 hours.

Back home, about three hours after finishing the 13.1 mile race, I headed out the door on a five-mile loop. Both of my Achilles were tight, but that’s nothing new. I’ve been trying to stretch them out for months to no avail. About three miles through my gentle jog, I had a sudden pain at the base of my right calf, like someone snuck up from behind and punched me with brass knuckles. I stopped and massaged it for several minutes, then began a slow walk-jog cycle to cover the remaining two miles back home.

Jog two blocks, walk two. Jog, walk, jog, walk. After 1.5 miles of this, in the middle of a walking segment, the sucker punch came again. Harder. Now just four blocks from home, I wished I had my cell phone so I could call and have someone pick me up. The pain was just shy of excruciating. I couldn’t flex my foot at all, which meant I couldn’t “toe off” to take a step. The next half-mile took 20 minutes as I gingerly walked with a flat right foot. Once home, I did the RICE method (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) as much as possible.

The next day, Monday, I awoke to find the leg was slightly swollen but feeling better. I pulled on my CEP compression sleeves and headed to work. (Yeah, I’m not too smart.) As the day wore on, my leg didn’t feel that bad – I’d call it 75% of “normal.” But when I got home and took off the compression sleeves, the swelling was a bit worse. No doubt some of that was because of the compression, but still, there was no denying something was still wrong.

At 8:05 this morning, just after the doctor’s office opened, I called to make an appointment. I have big races and big plans this fall. Better to find out exactly what’s wrong and how to treat it than to take the easy “aw, it’ll be fine in a few days” approach.

Of course, I don’t really think there’s a RunnerDude Hex. On the contrary, I’m very honored to be the Runner of the Week. I’m eager to get healed so I can go back to earning the honor.

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