Near Miss

This running season has been one for the books. Since late last year, I have run without serious injury and I've run primarily outside. There have been a few treadmill runs, but most of my mileage has been on the street.

Two Saturdays ago was the big 20 miler in preparation of the Marine Corps Marathon, less than two weeks away now.

Over the past couple of months, I've had occasional pain in my big toes. Nothing debilitating, just a steady pain that would start after 10 miles or so on some, but not all, runs. That Saturday was different.

Everything was good as the run started out. Around mile 5, I had my first issue -- I accidentally ran on the corner of the sidewalk, twisting my right ankle. After a bit of walking, I was back on the run. No harm, no foul, so it seemed.

At about mile 8, I started to feel the toe pain. Mild at that point, I knew I could get through it, so long as it didn't progress. Unfortunately, it did. By 11 miles, the pain was so severe I had to stop. Walking was even more painful, but I had to keep going to get back to the car.

I totaled 12 miles for the day, well short of the 20 miles needed.

After arriving home, I laid down for an hour. When I got up, my ankle was in severe pain. I couldn't walk. I'm seeing my marathon run flushing down the toilet.

With the ankle pain mostly abated, I visited my podiatrist on Tuesday, who couldn't determine anything wrong other than a bit of tendinitis. I didn't run again until Thursday when I got in three big miles. Oy!

The ankle issue was clearly a near miss, but there's more to be seen on the toe issue, for sure.

L'Chaim!