Week 10! This means there are only six more weeks or training, and in the past few days, a lot has changed. I started off the week with easy miles. I knew I’d be running a hilly half marathon so I didn’t want to have tired legs come race day. Tuesday was a quick out and back and I felt recovered from my 20 miler. Wednesday, I joined Elayna for some easy miles in the metro parks. The weather was perfect, my legs felt great and I was excited to catch up before she ties the knot this weekend.

The run felt great until I finished, that’s when my left foot felt a little tight on the outside. I drove home, thinking nothing of it and as soon as I stepped out of the car I knew I was in trouble. The whole outside of my foot was in pain, a pain that I was far too familiar with. I tried to massage it, stretch it and keep off of it. I hoped that if I went to bed, the pain would be gone in the morning. Thursday I woke up, and the pain was still there, not a good sign.

I had planter fasciitis in my left arch in high school, and then I continued to run on it, race on it, and did a 50k relay which ultimately destroyed my arch, leaving me out of running for months. I traded in my running shoes for a boot and cortisone shots that will mentally scar me for life. Once in a while I’ll get minimal pain in my left arch on long runs, and the pain on the left side of my foot was exactly the same, but worse. So I continued to roll, massage, ice and elevate my foot hoping that it was just a small flair up and it would be gone by Saturday.

Friday I woke up and felt great, whew! Injury avoided, and I can go back to my regularly scheduled running. I was still a little nervous about running on Saturday but figured I could play it by ear. I had been looking forward to this half for a long time and I was excited to get back into racing.

Monday: Off

Tuesday: 2 Miles

Wednesday: 3.75 Miles

Thursday: Off

Friday: Off

Saturday: Buehler’s Heart & Sole Half Marathon

Sunday: Off

Total Miles: 18.75 Miles

Saturday was race day, I won’t go into too much detail because I want to save it for my race recap, but I’ll give you the high and low points. I started the day with no pain and continued for the first 3 miles with no pain. I started to feel pain at mile 4 and should have dropped there, but I didn’t. Overall it was a great race, but you’ll learn more later this week when I share my recap.

As of right now, I regret running the race. I should have taken time off or dropped from the race when I first felt pain. After icing, massaging, rolling and elevating all weekend, it’s not getting better. I’ve decided to take this next week off completely and let it heal. Luckily it was originally planned to be a light week with no weekend run due to a wedding. I’m definitely going to take a look at the rest of my training plan and shift things around. I knew I had been too lucky not to get injured, and I should have played it safe over the weekend. With six weeks to go, everything from here on out is crucial for race day.

What I learned:

• No race is worth the risk of possibly injuring yourself for weeks to come. I should have played it smart and not run, now I have no idea how the rest of training will go.

 

*Housekeeping: Be sure to enter my giveaway for a FlipBelt!