Been seven and a half years since a tragic mishap took it from me forever. Permanent cartilage damage meant it was over at 23. I can't even describe how painful the first few months were; I seriously considered suicide and ended up getting 14 days in the psych ward. My posts on here from that period are so dark and painful to read now. I've moved on a different lifestyle, but man I miss the f*ck out of running sometimes. Last summer I figured out that I could actually run a little bit....not mileage, but in short, infrequent bouts without too much pain. I got myself down to a 4:52 mile basically running time trials twice a week, at 30. Not great, but still something I never thought I'd be able to do again. It ended up really aggravating my damaged joints, though, and I don't think I'll do it again next summer. But it was nice to be able to run one more time, kind of as a final farewell.
R.I.P. running (1996-2006)