Alas, I cannot run any longer. From age 15-38 I ran almost every day ( average of 8-10km). I never did a marathon, but ran with various clubs and groups over the years. My longest run - which I did several times - was 29 miles. Towards the end I was doing ~15-20km once a week, so I probably could have done a 1/2 marathon at least. I always did well in minor competition, but never really had the drive for the big league. Some of the friends I ran with early in life have gone on to be superb athletes, one guy running his best marathon time in his late 30s and another now in his late 40s doing really well at an international level.
The reason I stopped? Well, it has to do with the addiction of running. Living in such a beautiful place, where the rainforest touches the ocean, I preferred to run through the woods rather than on the road. The trouble with that is there are lots of tree roots growing across the tracks, so it required constant navigation.
Back then, nothing could keep me from running, and that's where the problem lay. I repeatedly twisted my left ankle - usually on tree roots -and the resulting tendinitis led to a permanently swollen achilles tendon, which I wouldn't/ couldn't let heal before running again. Silly, I know, but I figured that because some days were better than others that it would heal in time.
Eventually it affected the sciatic nerve, which got so bad that on more than one occasion, far from home, I completely lost the use of my left leg. I literally had to lift my leg with my arms to get it to move and lost all sensation in the leg for several hours. It gradually got worse, so I shortened the distance in a last ditch effort to compensate. But it was too late. It became so serious that the leg would start to go numb within the first few km's. I was also doing a lot of stretching (advanced Tai Chi) but nothing would fix it. I turned to a friend who was in remedial medicine and he had some success with acupuncture, but it was always only a temporary fix.
Now some 10 years later, even with daily stretching I still cannot run. My left tendon is approximately twice the size of my right and a ~50cm section has no stretch at all. If I stretch too far, I can feel the tendon tearing on the calcaneus. Even walking affects it and my achilles swells badly.
Ruski, you mentioned supination. My feet are flat and are naturally supinated, but I've never had probs with knees or ITB, and at my peak could do 12-15 single leg squats on each leg without effort, although my right leg was always a bit stronger. While I always tried to buy the correct supinator compensating shoes, it wasn't always possible with a size 14 foot. I've always wondered if the wrong shoes could have affected my condition.
Sorry about the long rant, but it's hard to convince non-runners just how much I miss it. I'm sadly resigned to the fact that I will never run again. I'd thought about surgery, although my friend and another doc both indicated it's probably even beyond that. I do miss it though, and frequently dream of running. For me it was a far worse addiction than any drug could ever be
