injured.

No running lately.

No running?  What happened to that commitment to run more and get prepared to run a full marathon by the end of this year?

An injury is what happened.

I started trying to run again about three weeks after my race and noticed a sharp pain in my left foot.  I tried again after resting for a few days and the pain only worsened.  I have been to the doctor and while the injury is still not diagnosed, it is likely either an injury in the tendon or a fracture in the bone.  I still have to see a specialist to figure out is to become of my poor little foot.

It is frustrating especially because I had so much enthusiasm to run again and to compete in more races this year.  My dad even offered to fly me out to Colorado for a weekend in May to do a double-header: a 5K with obstacles followed the next day by a 10K.  I was so excited for it and will hopefully still be able to do it, but I guess that all really depends on the state of my foot in the next month or so.

Having an injury is frustrating, yes, but also kind of cool in a way.  For so long I have been writing about how athletic I used to be and how I want to get back into running and be fast again.  And while not being able to run without totally incapacitating myself for an entire day is really upsetting, it also kind of shows me that I am working hard enough to get injured in the first place.  Does that make sense?  It is exciting in that it reminds me of being a Varsity athlete in high school.  I never had serious injuries then, but I sustained smaller injuries that required special attention every now and again from the sports trainer.  I guess in some way this injury reminds me of a time in my life that I trained so hard that special attention to small injuries was necessary, so it makes me feel a little bit like I somehow earned this inconvenience through my hard work.

Is it a little unreasonable, counter intuitive, and immature to be a little stoked about this inconvenience in my life?  I would say "yes."  But if I have learned anything, I know that it is important to celebrate the little victories while you are focusing on improving any problem.

I hope this situation continues to improve.  While I'm not running, maybe I can write more posts about what I did throughout the end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012, since I sort of dropped off the map for a while then.  I'll keep posting about my foot.  Until next time...