... but let's start with gentle hills!
That could definitely be my motto for the running season 2017-2018. After a 2016-2017 season marked by my return to running from scratch and several races, I started the current one with an idea in mind: changing the way I run to safeguard my knees and extend by many years my running hobby. But let's backtrack a bit...
Spring 2015, in the full swing of enjoying trail running in Guadeloupe less than six months after my first race ever, I am ramping up recklessly mileage. Knee pains are also steadily increasing. The MRI concludes that I have started to damage quite well the cartilages of both of my knees and if I continue I am on a short path straight to arthrosis (and no more running). Back to September 2017...
After a first season, I decide that now is the time to do something to extend my runner's life expectancy. I end up finding two revealing books.
One is called "Born to run" and talks about mystic Mexicans running miles and miles in slipper type shoes in the middle of mountains. Very inspiring and motivating to go back at running even stronger.
The second is called "Courir léger" (or light running) and details how to switch to a mid-foot type of running that is gentler on the knees and used by the best runners. I boarded the train of this new type of running, switching my usual running shoes to minimalist shoes for halifax of my runs, starting back from scratch.
Back to the future...
On the 28th September 2018, on the eve of my first race of the 2017-2018 season: Beat to snot. After twelve months of running, I have expanded my mileage, acquired a new way of running that made all my knee pains disappear and I enjoyed some long trail runs in the middle of Nova Scotian nowhere. All this to be ready for this race. The race I wanted to do when I landed in Canada in August 2015. A gruelling 18km with more than 1,300m of positive elevation. Wish me luck and see you soon for some news on this adventure!
Wish me Luck!
Antoine
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