Humpty Dumpty has nothing on me

Sometimes I feel like a broken China doll that’s been glued back together, or maybe – as a result of my latest eating patterns – Humpty Dumpty. Then again they never put Humpty back together again but all of my “horses and men” are making it happen for me.

OK, here are a few of the scrapes and injuries that left me feeling a bit broken even before trying running on a regular basis.

Minor scoliosis at a child.

Fell off a top bunk and straight onto my tailbone at 11.

Severe shin splints during junior high track. But there wasn’t any “sports medicine” when I was in junior high, so I just laid in bed at night after practice and gutted out the pain. Shin splints have haunted me ever since.

Shredded the cartilage under both kneecaps catching fast-pitch softball in high school. One knee has been scoped; the other supposedly needs it.

Got rear-ended at 45 mph – by a drunk driver -- while stopped at a traffic light.

In almost every case, I never saw a doctor for any related problems until decades later. The cumulative effect had taken its toll and running only got harder and harder with more breaks -- because of aches -- with each passing year. And, it seemed, I got slower and slower.

Ten years ago, my then chiropractor asked me to stop running so he could fix my back. I was so fed up with nightly back spasms and pain that I gave in -- for eight years. A new chiropractor said she thought I should be able to run into old age – maybe slower and fewer miles but run all the same. Of course, by then if I ran “fewer miles,” I’d only have to get up, walk to the kitchen and get a snack to cover my “workout.”

I tried to run again a few times, but the same old hurts came back with a vengeance. The bike, elliptical, kayaking, golf and (sometimes) weights filled my workouts. Then one day I discovered ChiRunning while on the Internet looking for something else with the word “chi” in it. And it changed my life.

I started out tentatively and timidly, wondering what would “break” first. Where before, running broke me down, ChiRunning seemed to build me up. My current chiropractor says my back and knees have improved with running.

It’s a little weird, but my body seems to be revisiting each of my big injuries and some symptoms are reappearing. Now it seems I’m working through all of my pains and injuries with running instead of the injuries coming from running. But this time when I get them worked on, they seem to finally be gone for good.

I still use my “team”– chiropractor, PT, massage therapist, muscle activation therapist, cranial-sacral doc – when I need to. We are closing in on the last of the problems/challenges – or at least I hope so. There is one last hurdle that I’m hoping a cardiologist can answer soon and then there’ll be no stopping me. I’ll have gone from China doll to Wonder Woman.