My first running injury :(

It finally happened - I hurt myself running. Nothing huge like a broken bone, but pain no less. After running the Crim, I did some brief stretches and hit the road to get back for Brian's bday lunch. Once I arrived at my parents' house after the hour ride, I almost fell onto the ground after my left knee gave out. I walked it out to stretch it out and still had to rush around to get ready.

For the next day, I had knee pain on the outside of my left knee upon walking and especially going up stairs. After that day, I never had knee pain again - it shifted to my left foot. For the next week, the outside part of my left foot was so painful every time I put weight on it. The good news is that I had that week off from work as well. So, I was able to rest, relax, elevate and ice it. Once the pain didn't go away, I went to Probility (a sports injury rehab place) for a consultation as they have a free runner's drop-in day scheduled once a month. They told me that nothing looked out of ordinary and with some rest I should be fine.

I tried to run on it a couple of times - the first time I only made it a half mile before I had to turn around and walk home. The next time, a week later, I only made it 2 miles before the pain began. At that point, I called my MD and got an appt. She was afraid I had a stress fracture in my foot. After an x-ray and a couple days of waiting, the x-ray was negative and I should be fine.

So, four weeks from running the Crim, I finally ran my first 3 miles without pain last night. It felt really good and I'm hoping that I'm done with all pain from here on out. The time I took off from running to allow my foot to heal was brutal and it really made me realize how much I enjoy running. Now I'm excited to get back into it. I know now not to over do it and to train properly to avoid injury :)

As great as this news is, the Detroit Half Marathon is in three weeks and I'm not sure if this is a good idea or not. I don't want to push it and get another injury, but I've already registered for the race and have been looking forward to it for so long. I haven't quite figured it all out yet. I plan on getting back on track in my plan, building up miles slowly. We'll see; for now I'll just be excited to be able to run again!