Pain in the butt...errr...feet

I am now officially one month post marathon. Ask me how far I've ran in the past month. Go ahead, ask. Well I'll tell you. It's been a whopping 3 miles. 3. It sounds so sad. I promise I do have a good excuse. No, I'm not just lazy.

Toward the end of my training, as my mileage was ramping up, I began having pain in my feet. As I usually do with pain, I ignored it. Especially since the marathon was approaching. Nothing would set me back from that. Well, during the marathon, the pain really started getting to me around mile 18. I ended up taking some ibuprofen when I saw my family at mile 20. It was a deep aching pain that really was incessant no matter what I did. It even hurt during my walking breaks.

During training it would subside after a long run. Well, that wasn't the case post-marathon. The pain did not subside. It pretty much stayed the same and hurts A LOT in the mornings when I get out of bed. I went for that 3-mile run and regretted it. My feet weren't too happy with me. Since then, I've been resting and pondering what could possibly be wrong. I thought maybe I had a stress fracture in each foot. I Googled it. I had all of the symptoms. Cool, I was staring down 6-8 weeks in a walking boot.

Now, instead of actually going to the doctor, I (again) swore off high heels and wore Puma tennis shoes to work, with my work clothes. Sexy. Of course that didn't really help much. Just made day to day life a bit easier. So, I finally made an appointment with the podiatrist who happens to be in the same clinic as my primary care physician.

Yesterday morning I went to see Dr. Shea. First he asked me why I would run 26.2 miles. I told him it was fun. He then asked me about my symptoms and then asked if we were going to have to amputate. Hah, funny doc. I didn't really know how to respond to that. It seems like it would have been funnier if directed to an 8-year-old. Oh well, he was at least good-natured. He moved my ankle around, pushed his thumbs in the areas I told him hurt, and all around poked and prodded my feet.

The diagnosis? Tibialis tendonitis. Turns out my calf muscles are too tight to allow the tendons attaching them to my foot bones to function properly. Thus, the tendons are mad and inflamed, causing all of the pain in my feet. Well, we have a diagnosis. Now what do I do about it?

Step 1: Stretch my calves 3-4 times a day for 4-6 minutes each time. Not sure how well that'll go over at work. We'll see. Step 2: Take prescribed anti-inflammatory medicine. I just picked it up at Target. Can I just say that I really love $4 generics? Step 3: Get orthotic inserts for my running shoes. Good thing my favorite running store gives me a 20% discount just for being on their mailing list. Easiest discount I've ever gotten. Step 4: Wear a heeled shoe to work. Done. No argument from me! Step 5: Take it easy and just walk for exercise for now. In a couple weeks, slowly start adding in running. As long as the pain isn't getting worse, I'm OK.

As you can imagine, I'm quite pleased to not have a stress fracture and to not have to wear a boot on each foot. That would have been funny. I'm not pleased that tendonitis can take a while to heal since every-day activity aggravates it. But, I am very, very happy that I can get out and be active during the process. Bam! Now if only I would have signed up for the Monster Dash half marathon that was last weekend. I'm somewhat regretting that decision. Maybe there's a Thanksgiving 5K in Sioux Falls I could do... I'm addicted.