It’s 2 days before my 1/2 marathon, and I’m debating whether I should even be running or not. My left foot started hurting about 3 weeks ago. I was out for a 16 miler, and my right knee was bothering me. There was some pain in the left foot, but my main concern was the knee.
After texting my coach, we decided to call it a day and try again tomorrow.
The next day, the knee pain was all gone. HOORAY, right? However, my left foot was bothering me. It hurt for a few days, and I immediately made an appointment to see my physical therapist. He gave me strengthening exercises to do. However, my left foot continued to hurt.
Finally, I was able to get a doctor’s appointment and an Xray showed that no bones were broken. Whew! I was pretty worried that I had broken a bone. The doc believed I had sprained my foot, by tearing either a ligament or tendon. She said it usually takes 4-6 weeks to heal and recommended that I didn’t run this half marathon.
With continued icing and taking ibuprofen, the foot felt much better. It still wasn’t 100%, but I was still planning on running the race. Sure, it wouldn’t be my fastest race, especially since at this point, I hadn’t had any quality workouts for 2 weeks. But sometimes a break is good. It forces you to rest. And I know I was fatigued before this injury came along.
Fast forward to earlier this week, when I was stretching my toes, and then I felt as if I rolled my ankle. The ankle hurts whenever I lift my toes, but not when I’m running.
So here I am, debating whether or not to run Sunday’s race. I’m weirdly emotional about it, because it’s on my birthday, and I’ve already told everyone, and my sister and George are coming to cheer me on. I know it won’t be a big deal to explain that I’m injured, and it just isn’t the smartest choice. I know everyone will understand.
And yes, it might not be the smartest thing to do. If the long-term goal is to qualify for the Olympic Trials, I may want to focus on healing my foot instead of potentially aggravating it further.
But there’s something else in me that wants to see how I run. I know I’m in it for the long haul, but running a solid race is excellent motivation for staying focused. I’ve been feeling the grind of this training, so an extra jolt of validation might be what I’m needing. Feeling pretty antsy about this whole thing. What to do?