As you can see, it's been quite a roller coaster ride. For those of you not in the loop (www.facebook.com/FitbyExample), let me recap.
A couple weeks ago, I got new shoes. The old ones were two years old, but a lot of that time I hadn't worn them because of my knee surgery. I just felt like their time had come, and I needed a new pair to finish out my training. I stuck with Asics, but picked something with a little less cushioning, but also a half size up to account for any swelling during long runs.
I wore them a couple times. The first long run I did with them was 15 miles... the longest run I've EVER done. I felt great. After the run, I had a little discomfort all around my foot... the top, the arch and even the ball of my foot. It felt like I needed to crack it, but it wasn't cracking.
By my next run on Tuesday of that week, I felt fine and went for an easy four mile run. Again, no pain during the run, but enough pain after for me to reevaluate my week. I would skip my 8 mile run that week and wait until Sunday for my 16 mile run.
On Sunday, everything was fine until about four miles in. I started to have some pain in the areas I'd had in the past, but nothing that made me feel like I needed to stop and walk. By mile nine the pain was bad enough that I could tell that I was running unnaturally, but still not enough for me to feel like I needed to stop. I finished the 16 miles, but I couldn't walk the rest of the day.
After a fitful night of sleep, I woke up, still in pain, and iced my foot. I didn't realize until I tried to put on my shoes that my foot was swollen. Even wearing a sock was painful. I decided to go to Urgent Care that afternoon, because I knew they would be able to take an X-ray right away. The doctor at Urgent Care was not concerned. She told me it was probably just my new shoes. Take a week off and then try going back to my old sneakers. No break was found on the X-rays.
Just to be safe, I had an appointment with the PA at my orthopedic's office the next day. To my distaste, she was pretty quick to assume it was a stress fracture, and immediately told me to start rethinking my marathon. Four to six weeks of healing time and a slow reentry into running would take me right up to the 26.2 miles. If I didn't rest and recover, I could possibly do more damage to my foot. She gave me a walking boot, wrote me a script for an MRI, and sent me on my way.
It was all very tough to deal with. I obviously had a lot of emotions and questions and thoughts. Did I really have a stress fracture? If I could run through 16 miles in pain, couldn't I do ten more? Would it heal by January 17? Could I refrain from running until January 17 and then just wing it at the race? Would I really do irreversible damage to it if I kept running?
How do I tell people what happened? So many friends and people I don't even know have been following me on this journey since September. Some even since I became a coach right after my knee surgery. What would they say? I felt like a failure.
I decided to play it all by ear. Get the MRI, see what it said, take it from there. Meanwhile I dug myself into a nice little hole of sadness. I felt depressed and alone. I tried to turn things around by focusing on what I COULD do. I lifted a lot. I even made a pretty sweet video of lower body moves you can do off your feet.
After a week and a half and a lot of angry phone calls to my insurance company and my doctor's office, I found out that I was going to need a SECOND X-ray before I could be approved for an MRI. By this point it was more clear than ever that my foot wasn't broken, so the whole process felt arbitrary and like a waste of money. But a waste of money for the insurance company, so I played along. 48 hours after my second X-ray (and 18 days after my first doctor's appointment!!!), I was FINALLY able to get an MRI.
I didn't hear from the doctor's office the day after the MRI. At that point though, I had made a few decisions. For one thing, I had already decided I was going to run the marathon, no matter what. I wasn't exactly sure what my plan of action would be... how long I would wait to run again, how far or how often I would run leading up to the race, I just knew I was definitely going to Arizona on January 17, and I was definitely going to finish that marathon. I also decided I was done with the boot. I wasn't wearing it anymore. The whole rest of my body was jacked up from walking lopsided and I was over it. Finally, I decided that I was going to go for a short, 2-3 mile run in my old sneakers, and see how it went.
The run went fantastic! No pain during or after! I wore my old shoes and made sure to ice it afterwards. Yesterday I went rogue to work without the boot and got a visit to the chiropractor in as well.
Finally last night, the doctor called me. According the the MRI, I didn't currently have a stress fracture, but I had some swelling, which could be a sign of a recent stress fracture that had healed. We'll never know for sure, because it took two and a half weeks after the initial pain to get the images. She gave me the all clear to forego the boot (good thing, since I already had) and to slowly start running again (yeah... did that too). With her cautious blessing, marathon training could officially begin again!
So that's where we are today. I plan on doing about three to four more runs before the new year, all five miles or less. If those go well, I'll pick up to eight and ten miles. There is no real time for a taper, so the week before the race, I may even do 16-20. Then it's off to Arizona!
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