The Podiatrist (Posted by Kelly)

Well, it looks like my increasing running mileage and my 40 minutes of kitchen chair step-ups will be coming to a halt for a while. I went on a great run this past Wednesday. The weather was cool, sunny, and beautiful that morning. I felt great after my run, during my stretching, and into the afternoon. Later on, though, I noticed a pain in my right foot that I've never experienced before. I pretty much brushed it off in my mind. However, it still hurt the next day, so I went on the cross trainer instead of running.

Friday it hurt horribly, so I regretfully decided not to run the 10K I was registered in for Saturday. (Double bummer: Not getting to run meant no free Brixx pizza afterwards!) Another bummer is my inability to wear the cool race shirt which I already received when I got my race number earlier that week. My cross country coach, Coach Smith, ingrained in runners' minds that one should not wear race shirts until completion of the race. That also means no running in the shirt during the race. It's an honor for AFTERWARDS. My sister, Eileen, can vouch for this. Now this is, of course, an opinion. I do share the belief, though. I guess pawning the shirt off on someone who doesn't share my belief is acceptable. I don't want to see it go to waste. It's a mint green color with cool swirls on it. Any takers? Let me know.

Anyhow, the foot pain reached an all-time high on Sunday when I felt clicks and pops in it while walking. The pain is along the outside edge of my foot running from the heel to the pinky-toe. My guess is it's some tendon down there that's inflamed. My diagnosis might be as simple as tendonitis. Whatever the injury, I will bet the treatment will be RICE. (Sports medicine acronym for Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation.) Even still, I'm not taking any chances before The Big Hike. I'm going to the doctor on Wednesday morning. What bums me out is that I'm feeling the same kind of "squeaky" fluid in my foot that I had in my heel years ago when I had Achilles tendonitis. That took a while to heal. I just hope this isn't another chronic foot injury. I had stress fractures in the other foot during high school and dealt with them for three years! However, I continued competing so I never really healed. I vow to do whatever the doctor says about this new injury so I can heal completely and safely return to A.T. training.

On the bright side, at least this is October and not February/March when we'd be getting ready to leave. Also, Ron went backpacking over the weekend, so at least someone got to enjoy the gorgeous weather we had. (I already had two babysitting jobs, so it's not like he left the injured and depressed pupil at home to wallow in misery.)

Hopefully, the next post will have pictures of Ron's hike in the Grassy Ridge area from Carver's Gap to the Doll Flats in Tennessee.