My shins never did quite heal. My back bothers me and I feel like I’m under pressure to complete the upcoming NYC Half Marathon that is happening this coming weekend.
I reached out to a Team For Kids coach. Team for Kids is a charity that I am running for and I raised over 2K for kids in inner cities to learn about nutrition and health. As a result of the fundraising effort, Team for Kids offers coaching to anyone on the “team.”
I called the coach and he told me to get acupuncture, a massage, and to run a mile and then stretch.
I talked with my running partner, Marti, who suggested that I go to see her acupuncturist. So, I made an appointment and went to see her after training on Friday.
When I got there, I filled out a bunch of papers and then walked into the back with the acupuncturist. She asked me to lie down on a table and she felt my wrist.
“You have sleep problems, don’t you?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said.
“You bruise easily and don’t heal quickly, right?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said.
“You have a lot going on in your life, is that true?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said wondering how she knew these things about me by just feeling my wrist.
“Your chi is off,” she said. “That’s the cause of all of your problems.”
She went to her closet and took out a bunch of sterile needles. Strategically, she placed the needles in my body. The first one went on the top of my head. The next one went on my forehead. After that, I just felt lots of snaps around my body, and the next thing I knew I had needles all over my body.
She left the room and I was sluggish. I drifted off into a deep sleep. When she came back into the room, I felt as though a really long time had passed and yet, not that much time had actually passed.
She took the needles out of me and I told her about chi running, a new method of running that uses a mind-body-spirit connection. She just shook her head and smiled.
The next day, I went to Yoga class at Nassau Community College. I told the teacher that I had shin splints and she said, “We have to get our chi in check.”
This is the third time that I have heard about “chi” in the past 24 hours. Maybe someone is trying to tell me something…
Article first published as A Runner’s Diary: Getting Spiritual on Blogcritics.
