Injury

Yesterday I went for my final super long run of 23 miles. The morning was much warmer and more humid than last week, so I figured I would have to run a little slower to complete the run without walking. Because of a foot injury I couldn’t even complete the run. For the last couple of weeks my left ankle has been bothering me during runs. I wasn’t overly concerned because it wasn’t getting worse and the pain would go away about an hour after running. But when I started out on my run yesterday a new pain quickly developed in my left foot. The foot discomfort was not as bad as my ankle, so I just shrugged it off and kept running. At mile 18 I stopped for a bathroom break that took a few minutes, long enough time for muscles to stiffen up. Just a few steps afterwards I quickly realized that something more serious was happening in my foot and I needed to quit running before I caused more serious damage. I called my wife and got a ride home.

Today my ankle feels great, but I’m limping because of foot pain. I’ll need to stop running until my foot heals and I have no idea how long that will take. Fortunately I’ve completed enough long runs to be ready for Grandma’s marathon. However, I’ll need to do some level of running during the next three weeks before the marathon to maintain a level of fitness required to get me through the race. I’ll be doing well if I don’t do any short runs during this week but still complete a planned 16 mile run this coming weekend. We’ll see what happens.