Unexpectedly Expected

This is how it had to end. Or at least something like this.

A routine Monday morning run. A normal way to start off the week.

A 5-6 mile run followed by a shower and some coffee while starting work for the day.

Only this Monday morning would be different.

It all started out according to plan. It was a nice, cool fall morning, which is my favorite temperature and time to run. The run itself was great – maybe even the best I had had in a couple of months or more.

Then, while getting ready to make my coffee, I started feeling pain on the left side of my stomach. It was bad enough that I decided to lay down to see if it would go away. Over the next hour, the pain continued to worsen until I decided I should go to the emergency room.

After a couple of blood tests, a scan and a few hours of waiting, the doctor told me I had a kidney stone. Thankfully, the IV/morphine helped lower the pain levels enough – to the point that I left the hospital 5 hours later in very little pain.

“Is it OK for me to go running?”

That was the final question I had for the doctor before leaving the hospital. Now, as I headed home, I was feeling much better than just a few hours earlier and relieved that the doctor said that I could run (as he said it could actually help move the kidney stone along).

I had every intention of running the next day.

But as you probably already know or could have guessed, that didn’t happen.

After all, I wouldn’t be writing this, and you wouldn’t be reading it if things went according to plan over the next couple of days.

After the morphine wore off, the pain and discomfort came back – even with the prescribed pain medication. I spent the entire next day (Tuesday) in bed alternating between uncomfortable sleep, pain, and nausea.

As the day went on, it became more and more clear that I wouldn’t be going running and my streak would come to an end at 2,153 days.

I didn’t give it too much thought at the time though.

Even though my streak was now officially over, running was pretty far from my mind because I just wanted to focus on not being in pain and then eventually getting back to full strength.

The following day (Wednesday), I was feeling so much better that I actually thought I had somehow passed the stone. But by Wednesday evening, the pain was back and by Thursday morning at 4am I was on my way to the emergency room again.

Another few hours of waiting (this time with no morphine) and another scan showed the stone had just moved to a different area, which was the cause of the increased pain levels. Now it was just a waiting game until I passed the stone. Fortunately for me, there was no more pain and I passed the stone on Saturday night.

Two more days of rest, trying to catch up on sleep and start my way back to 100% and without even thinking about it, after 2,153 consecutive days of running, I now had a streak of not running for 7 consecutive days!

Once I had ended the streak, there was no doubt in my mind that the most important thing to do was to make sure I was feeling better. While I definitely felt like I could have used a couple of short runs for some fresh air, I knew that physically I just wasn’t feeling up to it.

But even knowing that rest was the right thing for me still didn’t help get rid of the feeling that something was missing.

Because something was missing.

Having run at least a mile every day for almost 6 years (5 years, 10 months and 23 days to be exact), my mind and body became used to the idea of running every day.

I couldn’t wait to feel like I had enough energy to go running again.

When the day finally came to go for a run again, I put on my shoes and went out the door with a smile on my face.

I went out for a gentle 5k, but my legs and lungs felt like it had been years, not days since I had last run.

But to be back out running was the best feeling in the world.

So that’s how and why my running streak ended. Over the next couple of blog posts, I’m going to share some other thoughts that I’ve had about my running streak – highlights and lowlights, and things that it taught me about running and myself.

If you liked this post, let me know in the comments below. Also, keep a look out for Part 2 in the next couple of days and if you know anyone else who might enjoy it, please share it with them!