15 years ago, Sunday, October 13th 1995 to be exact, I ran the Marine Corps Marathon with my personal record (PR) time of 3:41 (8:26 pace) and felt great, although I had terrible flexibility of my hips. The following Tuesday afternoon, two days after the marathon, I felt good enough to stick with my training program and ran 13 miles only now my left knee was bothering to the point that I needed to visit my family doctor.
I will never forget this moment, after the x-rays were taken of my knees and hips I was waiting in the examining room for the doctor to return when he came in with a cane and said that my knee was fine but I needed bilateral hip replacement and he wanted me to walk with a cane until the procedure was done. Of course I told him that he was wrong because my problem was my knee and not my hips. I knew that I had bad hip flexibility but that was because I did not stretch. And in pleading my disbelief I told him that I’ve run 39 miles in the last 3 days without pain in the hips and that I would get additional opinions. Which I did, and each orthopedic surgeon I visited echoed the same, with one telling me that if I was 50 he would have replaced my hips 10 years ago -- at the time I was only 32-years-old. After visiting 3 orthopedic surgeons, who are known for being the “best” in the Atlanta area for hip replacement, I decided to wait it out as long as I could before going thru this life changing event, after all I was not in pain -- I just didn’t any flexibility in my hips what so ever. In fact my hip flexibility was so poor that many mornings after a long run or playing basketball the night before, I was unable to put on my socks without the help of my wonderful and loving wife Lisa. So, I continued playing basketball and ran for another three years until my hips started to bother me to the point that they effected my sleeping.
I waited until late July of 1998 after running what I believe to be my last 10K, the Peachtree Road race on July 4th in Atlanta, GA; I had a total right hip replacement and three months later a total left hip replacement by Dr Jove, I was 35-years-old. I selected Dr Jove because he was the only orthopedic that said that since I had what he called “off-the-chart” threshold for pain and that if I would listen to my body and pay attention to the signs that I could be a little more active than most people. Although none of the orthopedics I visited knows how long the replacements would last they would never recommend patients to run after hip replacement much less bilateral hip replacement. Dr Jove said that running may cause loss of bone around the hip replacement, so I promised to get yearly checkups if I were able to run.
About 1-year post op I was back to playing in a competitive league basketball, only now with much more flexibility and pain free. And 2-years post op I ran the 2000 Peachtree 10K Road Race with a time of 51:01 about 8 1/2 minutes slower than my PR. Between 1999 and 2006 I remained active with basketball, tennis and running about 100 miles a year in training for my annual running of the Peachtree. During the fall of 2006, while playing ALTA tennis, I tore the meniscus in my left knee which required surgery to remove ~ 60% of it. So, back to Dr Jove, only this time when he went in he discovered that my left kneecap was dead so he drilled 4 small holes in the bone in hopes that it would stimulate bone growth, which it did not. He informed me that I needed total knee replacement and said I was ready for it NOW, which I elected to try physical therapy for a while first. 6-weeks later I had a blood clot from my ankle to my groining. During my 9-day stay in the hospital my Hematologist informed me that I have a Factor V (Leiden Thrombophilia) blood mutation (http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/factor-v-leiden-thrombophilia) I was told that Factor V was the cause of the wearing-a-way of bone in my hips and not arthritis. To play basketball and tennis I had to wear a Breg Post-Op knee brace, but I lost considerable lateral movement and eventually lost interest, but I did run the Peachtree in 2008 in 1:10:00. For my need of competition, I picked up the sport of table tennis which I played a lot of back in college and joined the Gwinnett Table Tennis Association. In December of 2008, after my annual physical I weighed 220, up from 183 at the time of my knee surgery – that’s 37 pounds gained in a little less than 2 years, and 60 pounds more than what I weighed back in 1995 when I ran my last marathon.
My 2009 resolution was to drop the weight, get back into shape, and reclaim my youthful body. In January of 2009, I started riding a stationary bike at the gym and went on a diet. By July 4th I was down to 172 pounds and ran the Peachtree Road Race, with very little training, in 1:03:30. [The before (Later Summer 2008) and after (March 2009) picture shows my weight loss. It’s amazing how my hair regained it’s youthful color as well ;o)] After the race, I continued to ride the stationary bike and completed the year riding over 4,000 miles. Now, I noticed that I felt great and my legs were as strong as I could recall, so in December of 2009 I decided to try distance running again so I signed up for the March 21, 2010 Atlanta ING ½ marathon.
The picture below is of me after running the 2000 and
2010, on January 2nd, I started training for the ½ marathon with a 4 mile run on the treadmill. For the month of January, I ran 21 times on a treadmill for 80 miles and biked another 242 miles. February, I ran 12 times on a treadmill for 69 miles and biked another 190 miles. March, I decided to take my runs outside and ran 17 times for 85 miles and biked another 273 miles. Note outside running did take some time to get use to – I still ran pain free but I was much slower. On March 21 2010, I ran the Atlanta ING ½ marathon in 2:26:18, which comes out to an 11:10 pace.
Picture from the Atlanta ING ½ marathon
April, I ran 12 times for 52 miles and biked another 57 miles. For May, I’m on pace to run 100 miles and bike another 100 miles for the month of May. See running chart below
I’m going to run the
It’s now 12 years since my bilateral hip replacement surgery and I have not suffered any bone loss, yet gained my quality of life back that I’m determined to keep as long as possible. My guess is that at some time I WILL have to have my left knee replaced but until that time arrives I WILL run!
If you are interested in following my progress I will update this blog regularly.
Bruce Downs
5/20/2010
I believe that running teaches us to overcome preconceived physical personal limitations which transfer over to our walk with Jesus and what we can and cannot do for him. Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”
Updated: Added May totals
2010 Training Chart
2010
Running
Biking
Month
Count
Time
Distance
Avg Pace
Count
Time
Distance
Avg Pace
Yr to Date
75
63:26:48
363.84
0:10:31
65
49:48:55
823.30
0:03:35
January
21
13:29:05
80.00
0:10:07
19
14:26:50
242.30
0:03:35
February
12
11:58:00
69.25
0:10:22
14
11:09:05
190.00
0:03:31
March
17
15:42:20
85.25
0:11:03
20
16:31:00
273.00
0:03:38
April
12
9:16:11
52.70
0:10:33
5
3:36:45
57.00
0:03:48
May
20
21:07:40
123.68
0:10:15
7
4:05:15
61.00
0:04:01
