Something Was Wrong and Nobody Could Tell Me Why

For four years, something kept going wrong. Knees in 2022. Shoulder in 2023. Both feet in 2024. A gut crisis in 2025. Every provider gave me an isolated answer. Every single one said the same thing: normal wear and tear, normal for your age.

I was 44.

This is the story of what my body was trying to tell me for four years, and why nobody, including me, was connecting the dots. Until Valentine's Day 2026.

Next week I tell you what we actually found. This week is the mystery.

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"I decided to stop performing and start telling the truth."

Transcript

Valentine’s Day Pain Hits Different

Jama Pantel 0:00

I woke up on Valentine's Day this year and my whole body just hurt. Not sore, not tired, something was just different. And the thing is, my training had been going amazingly. I had just run a full marathon in Honolulu in December, feeling strong. Easy even. My garment called it a zone two recovery run. A marathon? A recovery run? Nothing should have felt wrong. But that Valentine's Day morning was the moment I finally started paying attention and connecting the dots to what my body had been trying to tell me for four years. Hey y'all, it's your podcast Bestie Jama again, and today I want to take you back a ways. Because what happened this year didn't come out of nowhere. It was the end of a story that started long before that. In 2021 is where I'll pick up, and it took me years to realize this was even a story.

The Running History Behind The Clues

Jama Pantel 1:04

I've run 23 marathons at this point, as you know, I've probably said that more often than not. I have been a runner my whole life. And back in college, I learned the hard way what overtraining actually feels like. Stress fractures in both legs at the same time from overuse. I was a sub five minute miler back then. Not that it matters. I made a promise to myself after that never again. I would never push so hard that I injured myself ever again. So when things started going wrong years later, I knew it wasn't that. I wasn't over training, I wasn't doing anything crazy. So what was happening? So here we go to 2021. I ran the Paris Marathon with my little sister who lives in France, which, by the way, is as amazing as it sounds in case you're curious. But I was already wearing knee braces at that time. We completed it, we celebrated it with macarons and champagne, of course. And then I turned around and ran the Honolulu Marathon in December, like I always do to celebrate my birthday. The knees were already signaling something. I just wasn't listening quite yet, or ready to, honestly. Then comes 2022. I was walking down the steps in the back halls of the Capitol with my friend Kelsey, just taking those stairs like we always did, and my knees literally gave out on me. I had to grab the railing to stop myself from falling, and Kelsey looked at me and said, Girl, you need to go get your knees checked. I'd been struggling with them for a while. So I did. MRIs, the whole thing, and the orthopedic surgeon told me normal wear and tear. Normal for women your age. Maybe you should think about stopping running. I was forty-four years old, y'all. I chuckled to myself and thought, yeah, okay, that's really gonna happen. I'm gonna stop. Maybe I won't do anything crazy like Leadville or Kauai anymore with all the crazy gains. But stop running. That was never actually an option for me. I got cortisone shots in both knees, and that's when I started strength training seriously for the first time since probably college. I also happened to make the Brooks run happy team that year, and we went to Utah for run camp that summer. First, I went to Arches National Park where I freescaled a wall like it was nothing. Um, and the views were definitely worth it and amazing. But by the time I made it to Park City for run camp, when everyone else was taking the switchbacks up the mountain, I just went straight up. Because switchbacks are boring, y'all. And my knees held up just fine. And again, I ran the Honolulu Marathon in December. All good. Never stopped running. 2023 rolls around. It's another legislative session. Those come every two years in Texas, and they are a bit intense. So the weekend session ended. I got on a plane for Cancun. I needed some sun, some sea, sand, and a vacation. Y'all know I love the beach. I went to check out the hotel gym and saw those bars that you hang from and jumped up to grab it like I always would. My shoulder popped out of socket and I literally fell to the ground crying. The shoulder felt a little better after that, and then it just kept popping in and out of socket. Frozen shoulder. I couldn't lift my arm straight up, I couldn't do any weight bearing, and taking my sports bra on and off was honestly the hardest part of my day. It was a struggle, and I'm not gonna lie, I would cry having to do it. I spent the rest of my cancun trip doing Pilates on the beach and sitting by the pool. Oh, and repeatedly going to the spa. I mean, what else? That's what you're supposed to do, right? So afterwards, I went back to the same orthopedic surgeon, same MRI, same answer. Normal wear and tear, normal for women your age, cortisone shot, physical therapy. I was only forty five, y'all. So Brooks took us to Santa Monica that summer for Hype Fest. I ran all the way to Venice Beach and back with my teammates, shoulder still couldn't go overhead. Running was completely fine though, and so again, I never stopped. 2024, this is the year I first didn't make the Brooks team, so I decided to pick up two brand new marathon spots for me to keep myself excited. Eugene, Oregon in the spring, amazing, and the Hawaii Bird Conservation Marathon on the Big Island in December, also amazing. Eugene was totally fine, but somewhere after that, plantar fasciitis both feet. No injections this time, just me, a freezer full of water bottles, and enough KT tape to wrap a small country. I became a KT tape expert, y'all. So I ran the run for the water here in Austin in November, like I always do, fully taped up this time. I ran the Merry Miller in Honolulu and hit a seven minute flat mile with plantar fasciitis in both knees. Then ran the full marathon, still taped up, still hadn't connected a single dot, and the marathon itself went just fine.

Gut Crash That Finally Stops Me

Jama Pantel 6:58

So here we are, knees in 2022, shoulder in 2023, both feet in 2024, three body parts, three diagnosis, one answer every single time. Normal for your age. So 2025 was another legislative session, and in April I got what I thought was really sick, lethargic, no energy, couldn't get off the couch, my gut completely fell apart. Blood work was off, everything was off. I ended up fasting for a couple days because I couldn't keep any food down. Then I started with white rice, bananas, crackers, easy things on the gut. This was the first time my body actually made me stop running. And I started walking instead. A lot. I got a second colonoscopy that summer because I followed all the rules and got my first one at forty five. And inflammation in both of them, but never a real diagnosis. By fall, everything had come back to normal on its own, or on me making it come back to normal. The bloating was gone, which I had experienced off and on for all these other years, but I finally managed to lose all the weight I had slowly been gaining, and I felt amazing for the first time in years. So I signed up for Honolulu because of course I did. Race morning in December, it was a two-mile walk to the start line in a monsoon, soaked before we even started the 26.2. So the course was extra crowded and I couldn't pass anybody and was underwater. So I settled in, easy pace, comfortable, and by the end of it, my Garmin flagged it as a zone to a recovery run, a marathon, a recovery run. I had no idea at the time I was literally running on empty. I had no idea what my body was actually running on because I felt great. And then that brings us to Valentine's Day this year, 2026.

Decision To Find The Real Thread

Jama Pantel 9:24

Training for the Austin Half Marathon had been going amazing. I was so excited to be running with the spy belt team. I was feeling strong coming off Honolulu. Everything felt good. And then I woke up that morning, and my whole body just hurt. Not training soreness, not the kind of tired I know from hard weeks, something else, something I had never felt before. I ran the half marathon anyways, and I will forever be grateful for Amber for staying with me the whole time because I was struggling. She was my spy belt partner that day and again forever grateful. And I ran that half marathon and have not felt the same since. That was the morning I finally decided I am going to find out what's actually going on. I'm going to take things into my own hands. Four years, knees, shoulder, feet, gut, every provider gave me an isolated answer. Every single one. Normal wear and tear, normal for your age. And I believe them sort of to an extent, but not fully. Because what else are you supposed to do when the person with a medical degree tells you that? But here is what nobody told me. There was a thread connecting all of it. And it took a DEXA scan, a comprehensive blood panel, and finally deciding to look for my own answers to find it. That story is next week. I'll see you then. And if you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to Jama Pantel Unfiltered wherever you listen to podcasts and leave a review. It really does help more women find the show. Alright, bye for now, y'all.