The Running Man and the Hip

A sideways look at age, Blogging, Colin McQueen - writer, Getting Older, Hobbies, Humour, My Life, Real life through the kaleidoscope of age 3 Minutes

This post is not about being fashionable, it is about wearing out.  Something is going on with my hip with which I am not altogether comfortable.  I fear ironmongery is just around the corner.  I am currently teetering, arse just millimetres above the sharpened tip of the horn of a dilemma.  I cannot deny that my hip aches after I run, but it aches more when I don’t run.  Do I keep on running, bearing in mind that I just might be doing more harm than good, or do I stop running and just let the bloody thing seize up?  (Time to point out, this is a rhetorical question.  I am as stubborn as a very very stubborn thing.  I will continue to run as long as I am capable.  In my mind, keeping all of my failing joints moving can only be a good thing.  Sooner or later, something will stop me – probably an ill-judged bus – but until then, I jog on.)

I get no pain whatsoever from my hip whilst I am running.  It is one of the few smug joints that does not give me gyp during exercise.  It waits until three A.M. and then begins its toothache throb.  I am very stubborn about painkillers as well.  I do not take them.  I remember my grandma telling her doctor that she did not want to take painkillers because, if she did, she would have no way of knowing that the pain had stopped.  I kind of get that: you will almost certainly still be taking them when you don’t need to.  Occasionally my knees demand that they remain encased in supports throughout the day, but generally they are much more robust than they were six months ago.  My ankles are almost strong enough to support the rest of me unaided these days.  Also, I think that it might help all of my movable lower bits and bobs that there is quite a lot less of me for them to support now – and running is the only way, that I can actually think of, to maintain that.  I eat crap, I drink too much and in all other respects I am a total sloth; running is my only vice.

Also, I must report that spring is definitely just around the corner.  I ventured out today in nothing more than shorts (over leggings) and a T-shirt (over a sleeveless vest and under a long sleeved ‘T’).  I have shed the fleece joggers and the fluorescent jacket – although not yet the hat and gloves.  Snowdrops stand in clumps around the base of trees, peeking out from winter-long grass, trembling in the breeze; daffodil buds are pushing through the soil; all around me the birds are doing whatever it is that birds do in the spring.  Doubtless, somewhere, the bees are at it like knives.  Spring always seems to me to bring about the fastest transformation in the planet.  Suddenly everything that is not turning green, is mating.  The world renewed.  Except this year it all seems somehow wasted.  All of this wonder to witness and nobody to witness it, unless it is happening within whatever is perceived as a suitable distance from your front door step.

My run today took me over the swollen village beck, bereft of kids with nets; across the village sports field (technically known, in these covid times, as the village field); through the empty pub garden and finally the village churchyard – suddenly ablaze with the colour of dozens of new bouquets in vases – and although my heart sank at the emptiness of it all, my hip did not complain at all. 

In keeping with my pledge at the start of the year, I changed my avatar yesterday to a slightly more hairy Lockdown version of me and it made me think that it is time for a new photo to accompany the Running Man.  I think that I probably should make it clear, in order to forestall any threat of litigation, that the legs in the photo are not mine (that’s never going to happen) but they do, at least, appear to be running…

The next Running Man episode ‘The Running Man on Running’ is here.
The last Running Man episode, ‘The Running Man and the Weather’ is here.
The whole sorry saga started with ‘Couch to 5k’ here, whilst we were still coping with Lockdown 1.

Published by colinmcqueen

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18 thoughts on “The Running Man and the Hip”

    1. It is certainly much more bleak that the first lockdown last year which brought with it glorious weather in which to walk and run. Still, little pinpricks of colour are emerging all over now – although a really cold, snowy weekend is predicted. Colour is what we all need.

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  2. The joy of running is that the pain never really goes away, it just evolves. My general rule of thumb is that if it hurts less when you run then running is doing it some good. But I’m not sure if that rule applies to hips or if it’s just thumbs.

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  3. My Mom had a morphine prescription when she was dying of cancer. When she couldn’t talk anymore we said we were going to give her a full dose, instead of the half dose she had been taking. She violently shook her head, and refused.

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    1. After years of very bravely fighting cancer I had to tell my mum that the doctors had told me that it was a battle she was going to lose. She smiled, said her goodbyes to everyone over the next twelve hours and died. She just decided the time was right. I guess even when critically ill, people just know when they’re ready.

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      1. Dr. Herb? Hmmm…I’d prescribe coffee for everything. And donuts. But not decaf like Dr. Welby used to advertise. “You’ve fallen and broken a hip? Have some donuts and coffee and you’ll feel better.”

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  5. Well, being similarly–but not quite AS–old, it must make a change from bits of body being painful for NO APPARENT REASON WHATSOEFFINGEVER, so I’d keep running to take your mind off those ones if I were you.

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    1. I have many many of those and this morning I have woken up to find that somebody has boarded up one of my ears overnight. How has that happened?

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  6. I like the post but today was -25C I’m not seeing spring in this. However I did play a doctor once so I’ll diagnose your hip pain as Gortedfgrsoisen’s Syndrome and charge you a hundred dollars. Will this help?

    Laugh at yourself daily. Enjoy your life

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  7. Pingback: The Running Man on Running – Getting On

  8. Oh, I recognise all of this! My main problem is with my knees, but the hips have also been stiff as lately, what with all the sitting down at home we’re doing. I’ve found that – though I hate it, it’s boring – doing a shedload of hip loosening and knee strengthening exercises a few times a week works wonders in freeing me up generally. This in turn means my knees don’t hurt as much, which means I can do some lovely running again – back up to five and a bit miles this week, Hallelujah!

    I’m also with you on the subject of painkillers. Much as I want to inhale Nurofen after a sesh – unlike you, I seize up and start to have muscular regrets within about an hour of running – I hardly ever partake. I think I worry about becoming addicted, although 55 years in, it’s clear I don’t have any sort of interesting, addictive personality at all.

    I do, however, recommend the sort of reusable (and freezable) heat patches they have to treat bumps and bruises in primary schools, which do a fair job of pain relief. I also bought a little belt that allows you to hold the patch pretty much wherever you need it. I read in an interview once that hot water bottles are a big thing in the triathlon world and I thought, ”Good enough for them, good enough for me…”

    I see you’ve written another piece about running – oh goody, going to read that now…1

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