Post run mystery

Saturday I was up early to meet a friend for a run before joining up with the half marathon training group.  I had 13 miles on my schedule for the day and the training group was only doing 6 miles.  Jody and I met up at 6AM and headed out on a route that would take us across a portion of town different from what the training group was doing.

We had a great run and ended up getting in 6.6 miles.  We walked into the activity center just after 7AM and still got to hear most of Mike's talk over nutrition and proper water stop etiquette.  It is so fun to watch the training program participants during Mike's talks each week.  They hang on every word that he says and are so eager to learn and progress on their journey.  So many of the participants are first time half marathoners and it is truly amazing to talk to them and hear their stories.  Every week our group run is the longest run many have ever done. 

Back to the run...with the training group we headed out on a lollipop loop that covered the first 5 miles of the course.  Some of the ladies on the Rush team worked a water stop around mile 4.  I stopped and helped them pick up water cups when I passed.  Frankly I was at mile 10.6 for my day at that point and needed a stop.  I was overdressed for the temps and probably needed more fuel up to that point.  The stretching that I got from bending over and picking up the cups felt pretty great too...bonus and helped out the group!

I finished up the run and still needed about 1/2 mile to finish my distance for the day.  I headed back out to cheer others in as they were finishing.  Once I got done I did some stretching and then headed with another friend to a local coffee shop for breakfast.  Jody and her husband joined us once she was done and we had a great time catching up.  It was a great morning...my runs were good and the company before and after was great too. 

After that I headed home and cleaned up.  I met up with my sister and her family for lunch later and shortly thereafter I developed pain in my foot.  It was so odd since I had such a great run and hadn't done anything during the run to hurt it.  I've never had foot pain like this before so of course my mind went to the worst possible scenario...stress fracture.  I iced my foot but the pain continued...but mainly just when walking. 

On Monday, I made an appointment with an ortho and went today to have it checked out.  Good news...the x-ray doesn't show a fracture.  Bad news...rest and anti-inflammatories and wait and see if it improves with rest.  I can keep up cardio like swimming and biking as long as I don't feel pain.  Running is off the table since walking causes pain.  It is likely tendinitis (Dr. speak for overuse injury!) along the tendons that run along the side of my foot.  I feel like it's a bit of a mystery...I thought my training plan was conservative so overuse doesn't seem right but I also don't feel like it was an injury either. 

I'm 3 weeks out from my 25K and just a little nervous about this set back.  I'm hopeful that I can knock this out with some rest.  I'll be wearing comfy shoes as much as I can to work and hope that helps too.  Wish me luck!