Soooooooo I was running this past Thursday afternoon minding my own business, not running to fast, not running in a weird way, not running in a new way, and my left foot decided to say “Nope, you’re done for a while.” I haven’t felt pain like that ever in my foot since I’ve started running 2 years ago, aaand when I started running 2 years ago I did it in a dumb way and increased my mileage waaaaay too quickly and I STILL never had foot pain like this.
I tried to walk around a bit and try to run again and it hurt just as bad. No problem really, a foot injury isn’t the end of the world, but I was 2.5 miles away from my car and it was really cold and walking on my foot hurt pretty darn bad. Luckily Josh was around so he came and picked me up and gave me a lift back to my car. I tried to stay off of it for the rest of that day, but then I had to work the next day, and on Saturday it was worse than it had been, or so it seemed to me. I ended up at Med Express that afternoon, sure I had myself a good ol’ stress fracture but some x-rays proved me wrong! The doc said that he thought it was a sprain and gave me an ACE wrap, told me to ice it, elevate it when I can, and to not run for a while… he also said that I probably shouldnt’ go through with my half marathon on the 9th, so I said sure, if I need to rest it then I need to rest it!
So I plan on resting my foot until Wednesday. Wednesday I will try to run and hopefully it won’t hurt. In the meantime, I am keeping it wrapped with an ACE wrap, icing it when I can at home (I have a 12 hour shift today and tomorrow), keeping off of it, taking ibuprofen if necessary, and soaking it in epsom salts (mom’s order). Oh, and of course I plan on proceeding with my half marathon on the 9th ; )
I do understand that I have an injury and need to give it time to heal so I don’t do further damage (the doc I saw yesterday seemed to think a stress fracture was in my near future), but I am going to do my absolute best to speed the process up as much as possible. This is the worst possible timing for an injury like this, I have actually followed a training plan for the first time in my life before a big race (half or full), I normally start following one and do my own thing about a month in, but this time I listened! I increased my mileage gradually, I did long runs slower than my goal pace, I did speed work for heaven’s sake!! And this is what it gets me! Oh well, like I said I know I’m not the only one, but I’m still bummed.
Have you ever had an injury hinder your training for a goal race or stop you from running in it altogether? What did you do to heal? Any advice for me? Thanks for reading!!
RunNurseWorld 
Yes. You know, 5 days before my half marathon, I decided to fast walk 10 miles and gave myself some super horrendous blisters!! After that I stuck to the bike only to keep up my aerobic endurance but it helped to keep pressure off my foot I think. I had bought some tape, padding, etc. to put on my foot the morning of the race because they were still bad, but due to the downpour, at mile 1, the tape and everything was just sliding around in my shoe so I took it all off and just manned up. I know this is very different from a muscular injury, but you should try to be as delicate as possible for as long as you c an up to the race while finding ways to keep your heart rate endurance up!! I also once gave myself tendinitis on the top of my foot from tying my shoelaces too tight and then fast walking like a mofo through the pain. It’s important to be able to perform, but you also have to let your muscles heal!! I know you’ll find the right balance!!