Pulsera de Cobre

I have always been someone that likes to run.  Few things are as recharging as going out for a half hour or forty five minute run in the woods.  In recent years this has been a frustrating experience as it seems one ache or pain after another has continually cropped up and significantly curtailed this activity. Most of this has been lower leg pain centering around high up the achilles area or most recently, the backs of my knees.  I began wearing hiking boots or trail shoes to teach because standing for several hours (my classes tend to be 3 hours or 8 hours in length) often found me literally pulling my legs into the car for the drive home.

The past year has been the worst and it has limited my running to 2 or 3 mile jaunts.  While the run itself has been good, it is mentally difficult to be stuck in a lower level of performance than I had come to expect.  What used to be a 6 or 7 minute mile became an 8 or 9 minute mile.  I suppose this is one of the things everyone has to deal with in growing older, but I wasn't nearly as old as my legs felt.

Chile is famous for copper.  It is the world's top supplier and it has helped drive the tremendous way forward that Chile and its economy has progressed in the past 10 or 15 years.  The second day here we walked past one of the many tiendas in the Barrio Bellavista and I saw a lot of copper items.  Tienes un pulsera de cobre? (do you have a copper bracelet?)  I had read about copper bracelets relieving things like arthritis. Almost all literature that is of any consequence clearly indicates that copper bracelets do nothing in the relief of arthritis or muscle aches.

Being somewhat of an atypical person, I thought what the heck, it can't hurt trying it.  So I paid the 3500 Chilean pesos ($7 USD) and slipped it on.  Without remembering that I had it on, I noticed that a few days later my legs still hurt, but it didn't seem to be as much.  I went out for what turned out to be a 5 mile run that went up and over part of San Cristobal.  The course had about a 500 foot climb over the first half of the run, and then back down over the second half.  Most of the way up the climb I started thinking that I felt pretty good and decided to pick up the pace a bit.  On the way down I decided I hadn't felt that good in years and gave it some gas. I felt pretty good after finishing and didn't feel any ill effects the next day.  Then the pulsera de cobre started entering my mind.  Did it have an impact, and if so, was it physical or mental?  Don't care - just happy to not ache.

This picture is the back side of the San Cristobal hill.  The road is called Manuel Mackenna.  This is one of the roads that is the long uphill.  The clay path on the right is what I try to run on as much as possible as it is easier on the knees.  This shot is looking downhill.  To the right of the clay path is pretty much a straight shot to the bottom of the hill.

About a week after wearing the pulsera, I went for another run.  Since I was feeling pretty good, I decided this time I'd go to the top of SanCristobal, which is close to 300 meters high.  Thinking my previous run must have been fairly close to the top I was ready to give it a go even though you typically don't want to push your mileage too much when your runs have been short.  Off I went because even if I crashed and burned at least I ran to the top once.  After 850 vertical feet I was to the top.  For perspective, this is about twice as high as the hills at Boyne Mountain.  Put another way, it is about a 5% average gradient for over three miles.  The next morning, no sore legs. It was almost like a switch went off after a few years of leg pain and then almost nothing.  Work of the pulsera de cobre?  Maybe or maybe not - as it would defy science, but I think I'll keep wearing it as a good luck charm (and just in case it works!).  If you read a subsequent post down the road that my legs started hurting again then perhaps I'll clip then ends of off it and use it for a grounding wire.

The above picture is the San Cristobal profile from the 8 mile run.

end of post.