I finally got the darned referral last night (not going to go into details but let’s just say “pending” meant that the girl in charge of inputting referrals still had mine on the “pile” on her desk 7 days after seeing primary care doc and NOT because my insurance company was still processing.) and celebrated with a glass-o-wine.

celebrate

It’s always about keeping things in perspective and about balancing the good with the bad. With that said, here’s how my appointment with the foot specialst went:

I arrived and was the first appointment! But the doc was late. It’s ok. I forgive her because she was super nice and compassionate.

empty waiting room

empty waiting room

ugly runner feet

MC Hammer toes. Stop! Hammer-time Woah Woah!

I’m happy to report that the X-Rays show no signs of stress fracture to her. Diagnosis: Tendonitis. I was given a sexy ankle “corset” to immobilize my foot to start and with that no running and limited walking for 3 weeks (to start).

 

instructions for said sexy ankle corset

sexy ankle corset

contraption-instructions

instructions for said sexy ankle corset

But I am cleared to bike!!!! If in 3 weeks I’m still not better she will do an MRI and put me in the Cam Walker Boot of Shame. I like that she wasn’t so drastic to start =)

She said tendonitis takes more time to heal than I had given. Basically she said if it feels better after a week you should always give it another week. So, by running those 4 miles the first week after the marathon I set myself back and by running another 4 miles the following week (and doing so much walking) I set myself back again. I guess it’s not rocket science. I smiled when she said “You have to have patience”! What runner has patience? At least it felt good to have a doctor who understood how getting back to running asap is my goal.

So this weekend I’ll be a spectator instead of a runner at the Spring Lake 5 miler. And my follow up appointment is on June 11th which is only 3 days before the Oakley Mini 10K so I’m guessing that one’s in jeopardy too. I’ve got to be honest, it hurts just as much to have spent hundreds of dollars on all these race registrations that I can’t run just as much as the not being able to run them part. Sigh!

And the biggest choice (no choice really) I have to make is dropping back to the half for San Francisco. There’s no way I can go from 0 miles to 26.2 miles in 6 weeks. I have had some time to adjust to all this and actually think I’m handling things rather well.

Reese's

Coping just fine! #reallynotreally

Maybe that’s the good that came out of waiting a whole week to get my referral. Seriously though, this only gives me gratitude that my legs will be working just fine soon enough and I get to run plenty in the second half of the year. And how lucky am I that I was able to make it through my entire 16 weeks of training for my goal marathon AND set a huge PR? That’s going to be the highlight of the year for me.

I still have a huge undertaking to look forward to in September when I will be running the Ragnar Relay (San Francisco to Napa) “ultra style”! I’ll be running upwards of 30ish miles in the 30ish hours it’ll take us to complete.

I’m looking forward to finding a love with biking (both indoor and outoor) and sweating out the small stuff on my ass for a few weeks =)

And I’ll let Duncan continue the running in this family

photo 3-1

 

On that note, off to find a bike…

Do you bike? Do you bike on streets with cars? I’m nervous. Haven’t been on a bike since I was a teenager (except the stationary type in the gym). Any suggestions for a bike for me? 10 speed? Mountain bike? I need help!

3 Comments

  1. Sally,
    I don’t bike (outside of the stationary bike at the gym or spin class), either, so I can’t give you any advice, but I wish you many happy, pain-free miles!

  2. well yes that is good/bad… I’m like you all that race money hurts me to see go up in flames 🙂

    I just last week started taking my bike outside because yes cars scare me, but I decided it was time to get off the indoor trainer. I absolutely know it can make you a better runner, I’ve see that repeatedly with friends

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