About Running

If you followed my blog in the long ago past, you know that since 2007 I ran fairly consistently. After I got into decent shape I set and met several goals for myself including running six marathons. However, this last year has proved to be my worst running year yet, and I actually think my running days may be over. 

But it's ok. I have discovered that I love walking!

Here's what happened: I slowly lost interest in running, even when I met friends to run. I can't explain it, but last July I just didn't want to run anymore. (Some of this feeling was because Jimmy had a scary episode of atrial fibrillation while running, and he had to curtail his running for a while. I felt badly about going for a run when he was needing to not run......so that explains a little bit of my loss of interest in running, but really it was just a good excuse for me to stop doing something that I had lost interest in anyway.)

So I ran and less, but I still ran a little because Lynn, Leanna, and I signed up to run the St. Jude Half Marathon on December 7. It got to the point that I was running only once a week, the day I met Leanna and Lynn for our long run, and as any runner will know, running only once a week, and doing a long run on that one day is asking for a running injury. And that is what happened. My hip began bothering me the entire time I ran. And then one morning in late November, during what was supposed to be a 10 or 11 mile run (I can't remember), about 3 miles into the run I had a sudden, excruciating pain in my left foot. I stopped immediately, but the pain did not subside. I walked a little; I jogged a little. Then I knew there was no way I could finish the run, so I hobbled back to my car. I wondered what to do. The half marathon was about ten days away, so I decided to rest totally from running until the day of the race. Unfortunately my foot still hurt every day, but I kept telling myself that it was getting better. 

And then I did the dumbest running thing of all. I ran (well, hobbled) the half marathon anyway. How crazy was that? My plan was to start out and then bail out if/when my foot pain got too bad. But I kept on walking/jogging/hobbling one more mile, and so I took three and a half hours (that is soooo slow), but I did finish. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.

Of course I caused my foot injury to be even worse, and I really could barely walk. Finally, on December 11, I went to our family doctor and embarrassingly told him what I did (he knows me, so he wasn't surprised--I've had to see him for CrossFit injuries too, plus he is a runner). He did an X-ray, diagnosed me with a stress fracture of the 3rd or 5th (I can't remember) metatarsal, and prescribed two weeks in a walking boot. I reluctantly got the boot. The thing was, as long as I did not use my foot, meaning I didn't stand up or walk, my foot did not hurt. Otherwise, it felt like it was breaking in half. 

I made it 8 days in the boot. I couldn't wear it anymore! The change in my walking, even with a lift in my shoe was causing other kinds of leg and knee pains, so I stopped wearing it. Well, that was a bad decision. After a few days, I was back to having the same foot pain. So, I wore it again, and this time I made it 13 days! Yay! And that seemed to do the trick. I discovered one pair of shoes that kept my foot in the perfect position and pain free, so I wore those shoes all day every day for another month.

I tried to jog again in early March, but it caused pain. So I began to walk daily. I started with 15 minutes at a time, and I slowly worked up to 30 minutes. At first, if I walked longer than 30 minutes, my foot would hurt, but I have now built up to one hour of walking without foot pain. In fact, yesterday I deemed myself fully cured, and I ran a little bit. Just a little bit, less than half a mile. While I was running, my foot felt fine, but last night when Jimmy and I walked after supper, when we had been walking about 40 minutes, my foot began to hurt in that familiar way. Since I have walked miles and miles during our "shelter at home", I am pretty sure the running yesterday morning caused the pain. So that's that. I probably won't even try running again, at least not for another couple of months.

I know that was a long explanation!

I am still signed up for a 5K in the fall, which I will walk, and I am not sure what I plan to do about the St. Jude race. I have run that race every year (except one) for the last twelve years. They do have a 5K, so that is an option. Registration for St. Jude is in early June, so I will be making my decision soon.

I miss the idea of running, but I don't really miss the actual running. At least not for now.