If you read my last post, you would know I had an MRI on my foot and I received my results last night. And the answer is…

No stress fracture, no tendonitis, no ruptured tendon but a whole lot of swelling around my 5th metatarsal and cuboid bone.

So what does that mean? I’m not really sure. The doctor told me he doesn’t know why I have swelling around my bone but it is very clear on the MRI it is present and that is why I have pain. He said to keep running and eventually the pain will go away. What the heck kind of answer is that? Other than soaking my foot in Epsom salt baths there really is nothing else he could offer to help me. I asked if I should take Advil to help with the swelling and he told me NO. Ok?

I guess I’ll be soaking my foot and running. I have noticed it has gotten a little better after I stopped doing the stretches I was told to do by the first doctor. Overall it was a strange experience. But thankfully it isn’t fractured!  I was afraid of that.

So here we are, 25 days since my pain started and not much relief in sight. Argh!

We have finally come to the end of March and the month started out with such optimism of my first marathon has turned into such despair and no running. I’ve only done 36 miles of running and 26.5 of those were on one day. I’m hoping April will be better. I have 4 races and since the doctor told me to go back to running, I am!

I went for a follow up appointment at TRIA last night. The stretches the first doctor gave me haven’t helped my foot pain at all, actually they made my foot hurt MORE. So I finally got frustrated enough to go back.

The last guy just looked at the X-Ray and said it was tendonitis because nothing showed up on the X-ray. He NEVER touched my foot. I thought that was odd and most people that I have talked to about this agree that was odd. I have since realized he was inept. After he diagnosed me with Peroneal Tendonitis, I of course, went to the web to find out everything about this tendon. One of the things I soon discovered was that my pain wasn’t really near this tendon and when people have this type of tendonitis, it almost always hurts behind the ankle bone. WTF? I really had my doubts about his conclusion but Eric said he is the doctor, he knows, “Google doctor” is always wrong. So for two weeks I did the foot and ankle stretches even though it caused excoriating pain in my foot. I finally had enough!

I saw a different doctor last night. My new doctor was great. We talked a lot about running. He looked at my file and started touched the outside of my foot and said where does it hurt? He actual TOUCHED my foot, WHOA!! I told him quite bluntly that my pain has never been on the outside of my foot and that the last diagnosis confused me. I showed him where the pain was actually located and he said hum…and had a confused look on his face. Apparently he was confused by my diagnosis too…THANK YOU! He did some manipulations to my foot to see what hurt and what didn’t. He really pressed down hard on my hot spot. He said that he thinks it is a stress fracture of the 5th metatarsal but there is a potential I have a ruptured tendon. Unlike the last doctor, he said I need more conclusive information and ordered an MRI immediately because as he said, “Stress fractures rarely show up on X-rays when they are fairly new.”  I had been telling Eric this for two weeks and his reply was you know more than the doctor…this time I did know more than the first doctor!

I got right into MRI and it was such a weird experience. I had a faint idea what I was getting into thanks to TV but it really is a weird experience. On TV they don’t have the odd banging and clanking that goes on. Since they only did my foot, I was only put half way into the tube. I can see why people get Claustrophobic, that tube is so small! The good news is I only had to keep my bottom half still I could scratch my nose. LOL! Thankfully they had noise-canceling headphones which worked but I could still hear the banging.

After 30 or so minutes I was done and on my way home. I find out my results tonight. Hopefully it isn’t a ruptured tendon. It is funny I was praying it wasn’t a stress fracture but now I’m praying it is because a ruptured tendon would be way worse.

I have resigned to the fact I will not be running for a while. Like 6-8 weeks, if not more. Hopefully the doctor will let me walk my 5k next weekend and I already told Eric there is no way I can do the 15K in two weeks or the half marathon in 31 days. I’m so depressed but I don’t want to make things worse. I really want to run (well at this point walk) the Brussels 20K in May. That is 8 weeks away. I know this is questionable too. :( I have done some research and discovered aqua jogging. You go to the deep end of a pool with a floating type belt and just run under water. Your feet don’t actual touch the ground so there is no worry of making the stress fracture worse. I bought a belt already and starting next week I’m going to take my running into the pool. There have been quite a few studies on this and it shows that people can retain their endurance while letting the foot heal properly. Wish me luck!

Of course I will updated my blog with my results tonight.

Well I taped up my foot and set out to run a 7K in St. Peter, MN. It was a benefit for the John Ireland Catholic School which is cool. DJ and Brenda joined us for this race. And surprisingly my friend from the Twin Cities, Amy, was there as well. I started the race with Amy and her friend but eventually let them go and stayed with DJ and Brenda. The first mile was great but after that it sucked. We did a lot of walking and overall, even though I didn’t like my time, I had fun.

The first couple miles were ok, I didn’t feel any pain in my foot. I thought I was on the mend…but then it came back, and with a vengeance. :( I’m so incredibly depressed. I have so many goals this year and some many runs registered for and I’m not sure how much longer I can go before I call it quits and give my foot the time to heal.

I was so upset about my foot pain this morning that I seriously started crying at work. Not so much from pain, just frustration that I can’t do what I love to do. I’m afraid that if I stop running to let my foot heal, I won’t have the motivation to start back up again and I don’t want to start over, it was too hard to get where I am.

Somebody told me once that after your first marathon you will go into depression, I never thought that would happen but here I am, not running, in pain and randomly crying. I have two weeks until my next race. I’m going to do absolutely no running for the next two weeks. I’m going to try and do some swimming and biking (the sports doc suggested that). And hopefully I will be ready to go. I will keep doing my stretches and icing, and heating and popping vitamins and if I’m not better after that I might have to go back in the sports medicine doctor and get referred to PT or something. I don’t know.

Well this is a depressing race report. The race itself was fine, very small (less than 150 people) the course was flat and they had two water stops. The after race was nice too with Strawberry Banana Fruit Smoothies from Mc Donald’s!

It is weird for me to be struggle so much over not running considering 5 years I didn’t run at all and would rather not run. Pray that my foot heals and I can get back to doing what I love.

13 days after the marathon I ran for the first time and of course it was a race. 

The start was cold and windy. I ran the 5K, poor Eric had to run the 10 miler. I didn't expect much from this race as my foot still hurts. The doc says it is tendonitis. I'm not sure I believe that is it, I'm still worried it is a stress fracture. It doesn't hurt to walk but the spot on my foot is still tender. 

I did surprisingly well considering I thought I was going to walk the darn thing. I actually ran the first 2 miles without stopping, except briefly during the water stop. I was very happy with that. I hit mile 3 and my foot started to hurt but it wasn't in the spot I was expecting. It was my toes, ankle and Achilles heel so that was weird. I like that the course started on the Plymouth Ave. bridge so we didn't have run up it. There really is only a few hills on the course and I ran up all of them. Even the nasty one at the end of mile 3. That is huge for me. I have raced on this particular hill numerous times and I think this is the first time I didn't walk it!

My first mile was under 13, my second was just over 13 and mile 3 was 14. Oh well. After the race I stopped for some hotdish and apple and walked back to the car. I checked on Eric's status on the 10 miler and noticed I had time to find a closer parking spot so he wouldn't have to walk so far when he finished. It was very chilly waiting for him to finish. I saw a guy propose to his girlfriend. That was cool. Eric's report on the 10 miler is that it sucked. I don't like to hear that as that is the same course we are running in a month for Hot Chocolate 15K. :(

Overall it was a good run, definitely not my fastest but considering what I was dealing with it, I enjoyed it. My time was 41:37.

He proposed to her. 

I’m turning 40 this year. I know GASP! The goal I made for myself late last year was to run a marathon before my 40th birthday. I had planned in running it in November this year. Well as you can read in my last post, I completed that already in Little Rock…8 months early. I guess I’m good at accomplishing goals. LOL!

Well there is still almost 10 months before my BIG BIRTHDAY so I thought I need to come up with a new goal…

40 Races During the Year I Turn 40. 

Good thing for me is my birthday is 4 days before the end of the year so I literally have most of the year to get this done. When I came up with this new goal and told Eric, his response was, “I wish you would have decided that in January and we would have done more races in January and February.” I guess he is right. More of a challenge right?

At this point right now, March 14, 2017 (Pi Day), I have 288 days left to finish my goal and I’ve only run 4 races. So 288 days divided by 36 remaining races = 8 days. Yikes, that is one race every weekend until my birthday. I may have bitten off more than I can chew. Eek!

Additionally, my foot is hurting and the sports doc thinks it is tendonitis but there is a potential I have a stress fracture that isn’t showing up on the x-ray yet. He didn’t tell me to STOP running but encouraged me to bike or swim instead for a couple weeks. So I have that to deal with too. But I figure until my foot is healed, I can still walk and so the next few weeks’ races will probably be mostly walking.

So here is the plan for the next two months:
Sat., Mar. 18, 2017 - Hot Dash 5K (Minneapolis)
Sat., Mar. 25, 2017 - Luck of the Irish 7K (St. Peter, MN)
Sat., Apr. 8, 2017 - Scheel’s Spring Mankato 5K (Mankato, MN)
Sun., Apr. 9, 2017 - Goldy's 5K (Minneapolis)
Sat., Apr. 15, 2017 - Hot Chocolate 15K (Minneapolis)
Sun., Apr. 23, 2017 - Race for Women 5K (Madison, WI)
Sun., Apr. 30, 2017 - Oshkosh Half Marathon (Oshkosh, WI)

That leaves only 29 more races to go!

Most of the races that I’m added to my schedule will be 5Ks because I’m not crazy enough to run a half marathon every weekend. Oddly enough the only race that I could find the weekend of April 1st was a 25K and I’m not throwing a 25K into the mix! I thought for sure there would be some April Fool’s Day themed race but there is not. Maybe I should start one! Just kidding.

Friends and Family, you have been warned, you may not get to see much of me this year because I’ll be racing.

Well I did it! I ran a marathon! 26.2 miles. And it was so much fun.

Now you are probably thinking to yourself, especially if you read my blog, you were training for a marathon?

Yep, fooled you. Only a handful of people knew I was training for the whole kit and caboodle! There was an Onion article last year that said, “Wife Trained for Marathon and Didn’t Tell Anybody.” Of course the Onion is a satire news which means it isn’t true, just fun. Seriously, most people training for a marathon will tell everybody. I did not. I didn’t tell too many people because 1) I didn’t know if I could do it and 2) I didn’t want some people worried about me (I’m looking at you, Mom!).

It was a very long winter and many of my long training runs were on the treadmill. I’m talking 15, 16 mile runs on a treadmill. I literally lived at the Community Center on Saturday or Sunday mornings and watch 2-3 movies while running. It was a struggle, the treadmill sucks. But I persevered and have a shiny LARGE medal to prove it.

We ran the Little Rock Marathon. You are probably thinking, why the heck would you got Little Rock. I can understand that, who goes to Little Rock?  Well this marathon is known for a few things, one being very LARGE medals and two, a very walker friendly 8 hour time limit. And it isn’t like a lot of other marathons where they have a long time limit but you are all alone. This is not the case. They have pacers all the way to 8 hours which is unheard of. Normally you would get a 5:30 pace, maybe a 6:00 if you are lucky. This race was great.

Little Rock is very hilly. The first half wasn’t so bad but the second half was awful. A long 2.5 mile climb during miles 14-16 and the big climbs during mile 25. Both were brutal.

The first half the race I ran mostly a 2:00 run/0:30 walk. A lot of times I would run longer than 2 minutes but I was fairly consistent. Eric stayed with me the whole while and we didn’t argue. AMAZING!

The first half of the race we ran past Clinton’s Presidential Library, Governor’s Mansion, Central High School (think late 1950’s desegregation conflict) and the Capitol building. My half marathon time was almost a PR at 3:02. I was feeling great the first half even though it rained the entire time. Yep, I was soaked!

The second half was interesting. Like I said we had the big hill during miles 14-16. We did a lot of walking. But I was still feeling awesome. Once we got to the top of the big climb, Eric seized up. Like literally, his calf muscles on both legs seized up, he was done running. It was unfortunate as we had some really nice long downhills coming up. He made a quick potty stop at mile 16 and we proceeded to walk.

I ran down the hills and walked slower than usually so Eric could keep up. The 6:15 pacers past us and I thought about tagging along with them but I told Eric I would stay with him to make sure he finishes. Funny thing, Eric was going to stay with me to make sure I finish my first ever marathon, but it was me, doing that for him!

During another long downhill I was running with the 6:30 pacers. The guy tried to convince me to leave Eric and join their pace group. He said I should ditch my hubby. But I said no, I’ll stay by my man. Aren’t I sweet?  During this time I also ran into Tabatha (Tabaliscious). She was doing her first with her fiancé. She was from Fort Worth, TX  and very nice. We talked quite a bit. Her fiancé stayed with her to the very end. He also went to a bakery during the race to buy her a warm peanut butter cookie. LOL! We ran into them quite a bit during the last 10 miles and I actually finished just before them.

Once we were done with the hills, we went on a long out and back through a park. Normally I don’t like out-and-backs but this was fun seeing all the fast people running to the finish. It also gave me an idea for water/food stops on the way back too. I would run for a few minutes and then walk so Eric could catch up. It is funny how many people commented that I was way too smiley and happy to be running a marathon. LOL! I was having a great time. I think it helps that I was supporting Eric and not the other way around. Eric told me to leave him when we got to the 20.5 mile turn around spot and I answer, “Why, I’m doing two of my favorite things, walking and social media.”

Oh did I mention that I was texting people and on Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter for a lot of the last 10 miles?  Haha!

I really didn’t have too much pain the entire time. Like I said, it rained the first half so my feet were wet and during mile 25 I felt my blisters. Boy they suck! During the long uphill during mile 25, my feet were burning. Once we reached the top of the hill, we finally got into downtown Little Rock and close to the finish line.  Eric told me again to leave him and I said my feet were burning too much. The last mile had the “couch potato ladies” who were handing out beads and about a quarter mile from the finish was the lipstick mile where I put on some lipstick for my finish line photos.

I sprinted to the finish and I felt great. I mean I was still able to pull off a pace of 10:00 mile!  I think the few people at the finish line were amazed that I was running that fast because I mean, seriously, we did a 7 hour marathon. Most people doing a 7 hour marathon aren’t running much…

Overall I finished 10 seconds ahead of Eric. My time was 7:06:15.

During mile 21 or so I told Eric I wanted to do this again. And I do! I want to see what my true marathon time would be without the 10 mile walk. I can’t believe I’m saying this!