Honolulu Marathon – News – Merrie Mile Will Give Centrowitz First Taste Of Racing In Over A Year

MERRIE MILE WILL GIVE CENTROWITZ FIRST TASTE OF RACING IN OVER A YEAR
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2023 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved – Used with permission.

HONOLULU (06-Dec) — Sitting on a comfortable sofa on the pool deck of a Waikiki Beach hotel here yesterday, Matthew Centrowitz looked relaxed as he checked his Uber app to see how long it will take to get to his track workout in a nearby town.  Clean-shaven and wearing a black baseball cap (backwards, of course) the 33 year-old looked down at his left knee and began to tell the story of why he hasn’t run a race in over a year.

“I had surgery on this knee in 2012, I would say several weeks prior to the Olympic Trials,” the 2016 Olympic 1500m champion began.  “I’ve kind of had a history with this left knee before.  Both times scopes so nothing, like, super-super major.”

But this time it would be different, and a lot more worrying.

“Back in December I went on a hike in Zion (National Park),” he continued.  “No pop.  Nothing.  Weekend was great. I come back (and) that Monday I go for a run.  First half of the run, fine.  Second half it just started getting progressively worse and worse.  So I was like, I’m at the point I’m not going to do the full 10 miles, I’m going to cut it short.  I went about my day, and by the end of the day I was limping around the house.  I ended up limping for, like, ten days.”

Getting a definitive diagnosis proved difficult, and not for a lack of trying.

“I got ultrasounds, MRI’s, two reputable doctors –one in Portland and even one in Chicago– were like, yeah there’s a small meniscus tear but nothing crazy enough to do surgery.  So I’m like, great.  I don’t want to have surgery anyway.”

But things did not improve for the three-time Olympian who is now self-coached and takes one day off from running each week.  He grew more and more frustrated.  He was not improving.

“Somewhere in April or May in Park City I was still messing around with it,” said Centrowitz, who is now a Utah resident.  “I finished a run in Park City and it was really sloppy.  I felt like I was in a worse place than I was back in December.  I was like, OK, I can’t keep doing this.”

Centrowitz went to another doctor who thought that something was wrong with his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).  Nobody had said that before.

“This is the first time I’m hearing about this,” Centrowitz recalled.  “I was a little frustrated, not at anyone in particular.  I was kind of frustrated that this…