9 miles, Followed by Plantar Fasciitis

Have you missed me?! I know it's been awhile. Life has been so busy lately! Onto the running news, since that's what you are here for! About 2 weeks ago, I ran my longest mileage yet, 9 miles! It was the hardest run to date and was full of hills. I will admit there were moments that I struggled big time! The hills were serious! I felt pretty good immediately following the run, but on my 30 minute drive home, my left knee began to hurt...well, if you've been following my blog, you know I have had my fair share of injuries and issues while training for this half marathon. So, all I kept thinking was "please don't let this be serious, please don't let this be serious!" I got home and was in excruciating pain and my friend suggested taking a soak in my bathtub, so I did that and then iced and elevated my knee off and on for the remainder of the afternoon. Walking up and down the stairs was excruciating, so I began to stress that I had really hurt myself that morning. Before bed, I iced my knee again and took a couple of my trusty friend, Advil and hoped for the best. Well, imagine my surprise when I woke up the next morning and my knee was pretty much pain-free...it was a tad sore...but, it seems the pain had transferred itself to my left foot...think pain so bad that you can barely walk. I mean taking the first step after getting out of bed, brought tears to my eyes! So, of course, I'm thinking "great, another foot issue! just what I need." Well, this was a different sort of pain than I had ever felt and boy was it excruciating. I was basically hopping around all day because putting any pressure on it was excruciating (Have I used that word enough in this blog post yet?! That is the only word to describe the pain!) I began searching the Internet for what this injury could be. I started at www.runnersworld.com and pretty much diagnosed myself with Plantar Fasciitis. Here is a definition of Plantar Fasciitis if you are interested in learning more about it. Apparently it is a pretty common injury. However it is extremely painful and hard to get rid of in my opinion. Stretching and icing is the best thing for it, so you can bet I've been doing all those things like crazy! I tried to do my 6 mile run on Saturday, regardless of my foot pain and actually was able to run with the pain but about 1.5 miles in, my knee started to hurt really badly...same knee as the week before. I tried to run on it a bit more, but decided more running could potentially make this injury worse. I ended being in pretty awful pain the rest of the afternoon and evening, but woke up the next morning with little pain in the knee, but horrible pain in the foot again. Well, I saw a different chiropractor this week since my usual one, Dr. Rob is out of town. He officially diagnosed me with Plantar Fasciitis, though, the guys at the shoe store and my coaches (and myself) had already diagnosed me. I feel like this Dr. made it worse and I have been in even more pain since seeing him, so I am not exactly sure what is going on at this point. I am hoping to get in with Dr. Rob on Monday when he gets back into the office and maybe he can give me a better answer as to what my next step should be. I will admit that it has been a little discouraging dealing with yet another injury during my journey to the half marathon. It has been frustrating, but I know I can do it! We have less than 2 months until race day and I am really excited! I feel like I have been training for ages...although my body seems to think otherwise! I know this is just another bump in my road but it really helps to remind myself of the real reason I am doing this half marathon! I am doing this for all the people affected by blood cancer or any cancer, who can't! I run for LIFE! I am really thrilled with how my fundraising is going! I am at 94% of my 6500.00 goal! I am hoping to raise even more money than that, but I am so pleased with how much I have raised so far! For me, the main goal of training for a marathon with Team In Training is the raise as much money as you can for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and I am so happy to be doing this! If you want to help me reach my goal, you can go here to donate! Remember every penny counts and it is tax deduct able! I will be back soon with more news on my poor foot! Until then, happy running to all my running buddies! :)