The returning runner…

Act 69 – Michael Lebold on the comeback trail from total knee replacement

The Backstory

I competed in T&F & XC in H.S. -- The school record holder in the 880 yd run. -- A full athletic scholarship to UCSB. -- Set school records in the 3,000, 5,000, 10,000, & Steeple Chase. -- P.R.s 1:06 half marathon, & a ho-hum 2:35 marathon when some of my friends were running 2:20. Retired from running at 27, and got on with my life as a full-time artist.

Fast forward 13 years…

At 40, my old high school. art teacher hires me to do a mural at a H.S. where she is now their new Principal. -- While there painting the mural, they fire their art teacher for hitting a student in the face with an eraser ...and hire me to take over ...not only as their art teacher, but as their cross country & track coach. That gets me running again with the kids.

Fast forward another 10 years (50 years old and up)…

I move on, back to being a full-time artist, and ready to do what I thought I would never do, ...rejoin my old running club (the Jamul Toads) ...& start racing again ...at 50. I join a gym that has a 200m indoor track with banked turns, & embark on a regime that includes a timed 5k indoors, 4x /wk, at max effort, 5 mi elliptical 6x /wk at max effort, & *weight training ...50 wks /yr, ... for the next 8 yrs until the gym closes for remodeling. My 5k time improves from 19:45 @ 50, to 17:12 @ 56. At 60 I make the move back to the track ...strap on a pair of spikes, & go back to my first love ...the 880 (now the 800m). With things going well, @ 60, I partially tear the ACL in an ill-advised hurdle race -- but by the next year I'm running well again, winning our local Grand Prix Road series, ranked #1 on the track, U.S. M60-64, & leading our XC team to the USATF Masters 5k National Championship. Ages 65-67, I win five National Indoor & Outdoor M65-69 National 800m titles, & in 2024 team up with three others to set a pair of World Records, in both the Indoor & Outdoor 4x800 relays.  

Disaster

Later that same year, just days after returning from a month of running 10 miles a day at altitude in Colorado ... in a lunge at the finish-line at the end of a Mile race on the track ...I feel something "pop", "rip", "twist", ...whatever you want to call it ...it was bad. -- 7 months of denial, trying every knee-brace there was ...DMSO, hyaluronic acid injections, cortisone, kiwi oil, professional P.T., stationary bikes, anti-gravity treadmills, the list goes on –

The Total Knee Replacement (TKR) and Recovery

There was finally only one option left if I ever wanted a chance to compete again. -- A total knee replacement. -- Saw the old one out, & replace it with a shiny new titanium joint. After the initial nerve-blocks wore off, and even taking the prescribed opioids 6x /day for 3 weeks ...still the most painful ordeal I've ever experienced. I was in the gym working the legs the night before the 6:30am surgery ...and I was back in the gym 6 wks post-op, but the pain & the sleep deprivation was 24/7 for 3 months. At that point I was back up to full leg-strength, & on the stationary bike ...but running was too painful. Too painful at 3 months, too painful at 4 months, & at 6 months. -- Finally at 7 months, as I was beginning to mentally prepare myself to accept the fact that this was just not going to happen ...I realized I could run stairs, with no pain. -- And so I did ...and so I do ...doing more & going faster, & feeling stronger each time out. 8 months post-op I rejoined my favorite Saturday morning intervals on the grass group. The next Saturday I hopped on a train to Pasadena to compete in qualifying races, a 1500 & 800, for the Senior Games National Track Championship next year in Tulsa. -- Not too fast yet, but the knee responded well enough to allow me to qualify in the 800 And this last Saturday, again with my high intensity interval group ...for the very first time on the new titanium knee ...after completing 6x 400 that saw me going a little faster with each successive rep ...I broke out into a full SPRINT when it was time to do the 6x 300s. -- Didn't have much left for the 1x mile that followed, but that will come with time The feeling though, 19 long months after ripping up the knee ...that sensation of "flying" over the ground ...as if your feet had wings... was just what I needed, to give me the hope I need to see this through. No guarantees -- just a chance. At 40 I got back to running. At 50 I got back into racing. At 60 I got back on the track. -- At 70, next year ...I just want to be back.

Photo: Michael Lebold then and now – still fierce!