Trying to figure out whether I'm pissed or not.

Meh. Ever heard of shinsplits? Those on DA who I went to high school with have gotten their ears talked off about this subject in the past. Basically, it's a repetitive motion injury, like carpal tunnel syndrome, and it's common in runners. You have tons of muscles and connective tissue all working together all happy-happy in your legs, right? Well, not if you're me.

I do what's called pronation, which is a fancy word for "you have no effing arches in your feet, and you're fractions of inches away from wakling on the insides of your ankles." Ordinarily, pronation is not a huge problem. Yeah, you wear out the inner pieces of your shoes faster, and if you're lucky, you get giant bunions on your big toes. If you wear correctional orthodics, like I have, the problem isn't a problem anymore. You can walk about your daily life normally...

But you can't really run.

See, most people--people with arches in their feet--have a normal stride. People who pronate, no matter how hard they try, always have this funky jerk to their stride. And that funky jerk causes your muscles (in particular, the tibialis anterior) to pull in ways that they normally wouldn't. And it's this funny movement that actually tears the connective tissue away form the bone. Yeah, I know--shit even sounds painful. It causes an agonizing inflammation known simply as "shinplints." If left untreated, shinsplints can lead to stress fractures.

Mine are coming back. Right when I join the track club at my new University.

But...at the same time, I can't totally hate my shinsplints. Yes, they hurt like bloody hell. Yes, they hurt even when I'm not running. Yes, I have actually cried while running because they hurt that bad. Why can't I bring myself to only hate them? Two words: Cross Country.

I was the manager for my school's XC team my junior year. I ran it my senior year, but I felt waaay out of place, because these were girls who already knew each other as runners and had formed a team together. But...most of them had shinsplints. It was something I had in common with these girls, something that I could actually understand. We would ice our shins together and pop Ibuprofen with style. The felling of belonging was far stronger than the pain.

I dunno, though. If my shinsplints are coming back this soon, before the season actually even starts, how will I be able to stay with this new team I've found? I guess I should be optimistic and say that I can't possibly be the <iONLY person with sucky shins. Yeah, I think I'll do just that. Maybe I'll find new friends to shoot anti-inflammitory drugs with.