A huge (running) scare

Well, things were going great with my training until Saturday the 15th. That day I ran 20 miles at a fast pace, and things were fine. Or so I thought. Several hours later I was walking around when I realized that my right foot hurt a lot. "This isn't good at all!" I thought, because the last thing I needed three weeks before the marathon was an injury. So I immediately started taking Aleve and I stopped running at all, hoping that the pain would subside. For the next few days it hurt to walk, and I hobbled rather badly. I stopped biking to/from work also as a precaution.

The earliest I could see any doctor -- which of course has to be my PCP, who I had never met before -- was nine days later, on Monday the 24th. Let me tell you that was the longest time ever. In the meantime though by the time Thursday rolled around, my foot was feeling fine, so long as I was taking Aleve. Though I must say, the more Aleve I took, the more upset my stomach felt over the course of the week. It's good stuff, but it's not perfect.

I tried going to salsa class on Thursday, as a light test of how my foot was doing. It seemed OK (and I really enjoyed the class), but I didn't want to risk it, so I did not run my planned 16 miler that weekend. Monday's visit to the doctor couldn't come soon enough.

But enough with the suspense - on Monday I met my new doctor, Dr. Watson (not kidding.) He is really cool, and he spent several years in Pittsburgh, which immediately makes him awesome. He ordered xrays of my right foot, which came back with "no problems." This is great news, because it means I don't have a stress fracture.

Now that I have much more confidence that resuming running won't have a detrimental longer-term effect, I can get back to training for the marathon. However, not running for nine days takes its toll on the accumulated endurance and strength one builds up while marathon training. So last night I only ran 2 miles, slowly, in order to see if that would be a problem. It wasn't, and I felt just fine today. I also went to salsa class today, and then I ran 5 miles tonight. Everything seems A-OK but I'll know more in the morning.

At this point I have to ramp back up to doing 6-10 miles/day without causing other problems due to more than a week of inactivity. Then, I need to ramp down next week because the marathon is only TWELVE days away. Eeep! I can hardly believe it. But, I'm really really glad that it's still in the cards. I would have been really disappointed if I couldn't have run Chicago. I still would have gone to support my friends in CRC though.

Now I just need to put in my last miles and then get my butt out there. Chicago here I come!