It’s been a week and a half since I’ve written a real post (other than last week’s poem). I haven’t been out of town. And because I’m in the middle of my taper, I haven’t been too busy either. The truth… I was too petrified to write.

OK…here’s the story. A little less than two weeks ago (the Tuesday before my 22-miler to be exact) I went swimming. While I was walking around barefoot at the pool I noticed a very slight pain on the top of my left foot. I didn’t think much of it. When I pushed on it, I felt like I was pushing on a bruise. I tried to think back. Did someone step on me? Did I drop something on my foot? Did I kick a wall? It didn’t really even enter my mind that it could be running related. I was slightly worried about the 22-miler coming up in two days, but not too much.

I did the run on Thursday, October 12th. About 11 miles in my foot started to hurt a tad, but again, it sort of just felt like a bruise. Other than that the 22-miler went pretty well. I ran 9:20s most of the way. I finished in 3:28. Mentally it was a bit tough running 22 miles all by myself. I got a little bored (even though I had my I-pod). Afterwards I was pretty tired, and my foot was moderately sore.

The next day my foot felt thoroughly bruised, so much so that I decided to wear an open topped Mary Jane shoe that wouldn’t push on the sore spot. Again, it wasn’t too bad, just a little banged up. That night I mentioned it to Rob (who’s a doc so I listen to him) and he said it could be a stress fracture. WHAT??? A STRESS FRACTURE??? I didn’t respond well (had a bad case of blame the messenger I guess).

That night I was so worried that I couldn’t sleep. I got on-line and read everything I could about stress fractures of the foot. Oh my God…could this be true? Did I really have a stress fracture? I seemed to have every symptom. I was completely devastated. How could this be.? Three months of training down the drain!!!

I told myself I would not run until the marathon. I would spend the next three weeks of my taper in the pool letting things heal. I told Rob to not even let me try to bring my running shoes to Aspen on our vacation. That way I couldn’t cheat and go out for a run out of pure stupidity.

I took that Saturday completely off. I did a pool run on Sunday. I took some ibuprofen over the weekend. I did an hour on the bike on Monday. I iced a few times a day. By Monday night, I felt completely better. If I pushed on my left foot REALLY hard it hurt. This concerned me, until I realized that when I pushed on my right foot REALLY hard it also hurt. In fact, I discovered that if you push hard enough, you can pretty much make anything hurt.

I decided to take my poor foot out for a test run on Tuesday. I was really scared. What if I injured it more? What if I couldn’t run the marathon? But my fear of losing running fitness over the next three weeks was even stronger. I went for the test run. I started slowly. After a mile of warm-up I sped up to my marathon pace for four miles and then cooled down with an easy mile. No pain. I couldn’t believe it. I took off my shoe and pushed really hard on my foot. It hurt. Then I remembered what I had learned the day before. Could it be true? Maybe I didn’t have a stress fracture. Maybe I was actually going to be ok.

On Wednesday I did another hour on the bike (just to be sure). On Thursday I did an easy five-miler. While I was running I felt an excruciating pain in my left toe. Oh no! I did have a stress fracture. I stopped running, pulled my shoe and sock off, and noticed that I had a sharp toenail digging into the adjacent toe. I clipped it, and started the run again. No pain! Yes!

The next morning I had another panic attack. While we were packing for our Aspen trip I felt a strange pain in my left foot, kind of like a cramping. I pushed really hard on my foot. It hurt. How could this be? I do have a stress fracture. I immediately made the phone call I had been putting off all week. I called the orthopedist and made an appointment for the day we would be getting back from Aspen, more than a week away.

All day Friday I was in a really crabby mood. All I could think about was my foot. It seemed to hurt the entire way to Aspen. I took my shoe off while I was driving and pushed on it really hard. It hurt. Rob had to tell me to stop it. He said I was probably causing the pain by pushing on it really hard. Hmmm. Doctors!

I made up my mind to stop thinking about it. By Friday night it felt completely better. I decided to cut my 15-mile run scheduled for the next day down to 12. I went to the Aspen recreation center to do it. I told myself that if it hurt at all I would get off the treadmill and do a two-hour pool run.

I started to run. No pain. I kept running. No pain. I finished. No pain. I went back to the condo. No pain. I walked around town all day. No pain. I woke up this morning. No pain. I walked around town all day. No pain. Could it be?? Maybe I don’t have a stress fracture after all. I can’t imagine being able to run 12 miles on a broken foot without any pain.

So, for the first time in a week and two days, I’m no longer worried about my foot. For the first time in a week and two days I got a really good night’s sleep. And, for the first time in a week and two days, I avoided pushing on my foot REALLY hard. Guess what? No pain.

The last nine days were really rough, but in a way it was good for me. I think it made me appreciate the effort I’ve put in over the last few months even more. I think it made me even more excited for the race on November 5th (and I was already pretty darn excited).

So that’s the story (I know…the long and drawn out one). Hopefully, I’ll be fine until marathon day. A lot of marathoners talk about the phantom pains that often develop during the taper. Now I’m a true believer. I’ll hopefully be feeling good enough to write another few posts before the marathon, but for now I’ve gotta go push on my foot REALLY hard. Ouch.