Here it goes, here it goes, here it goes again.

Sigh.

It's been a real up and down, back and forth journey for me in terms of training for this marathon. Well, scratch that. Half-marathon.

Recommitment time reared its ugly head, and I realized - I hadn't been running. Not that I didn't want to, but that my IT band simply wasn't letting up on its painful grip on my knee. So, I recommitted. For the half-marathon. And kept cross-training like a fiend.

Things seemingly looked to be improving. Where I was only able to run four minutes at a clip without the inevitable throb pulsing through my IT band, it increased to eight minutes, then twelve minutes, then eighteen minutes, then, magically, during my first run with my new team in San Francisco, an eye-popping six miles! With minimal discomfort! I was so proud! I believed I was on the road to recovery and in the right direction to finally, finally putting these issues behind me.

Last Saturday, about twenty to twenty-five minutes into a fifty-five to sixty-five minute run, the IT band spoke up again, loud and clear. And it hasn't ceased its siren song ever since. I'm not quite back to limping, but basic movements do bring me pain.

I don't know what to do, at this point. I was doing physical therapy, I was cross-training, I was patient. And all I feel like now is just tossing the whole thing to the side and forgetting I ever tried to run a marathon. Or a half-marathon. Or tried to do anything good for my body on behalf of other people at all.

Hmmph.