Little hiatus

Well...my doctor's appointment on Wednesday afternoon went well. The doctor I saw was very nice...and I think was a little amused by me/my apparent craziness. After hearing me rattle on and on about my history/symptoms/what I've been doing about things lately...he says, "So you are a runner." I responded, "Well I try." He replied, "You run when it hurts. That means you're a real runner." Well, pin a rose on my nose ;). The fact that that statement gave me a little delight probably means I have some sort of issues ;).

So, the worst pain lately has been the suspected Achilles tendinitis. Turns out, my PT friends Jamie and Jillian were correct and I am indeed presenting with Achilles tendinitis (which, if you've never experienced this, is SUPER painful. We're talking...I was wearing flip flops even in the cold because I couldn't stand to have anything pressing on the back of my ankle/heel). The doctor prescribed methylprednisolone, a steroid. I took six pills Wednesday night after filling the script with my good friend Lynden at CVS in Normal :), five pills yesterday, and will take four today (have taken one so far). Boy oh boy. Yesterday I had an awful headache that I am "blaming" on the drugs, but who knows. Of course "headache" is a potential side effect of the drugs...but headaches are side effects of pretty much EVERY drug I feel like! So, who knows if it's related at all or not ;). However....the pain in my Achilles is extremely diminished. So, that's awesome! It was hurting just to take a step!

I have to wait to run until I am completely pain-free...and then wait two days past the feeling of being pain-free. So, could be over a week. So far, I'm surviving ;).

I went out for a run on Tuesday night...I received a text from my good friend Ashley who told me she had just gone out and run five miles for the first time EVER in her life! I was SUPER proud of her...but it also made me really jealous (ok, that is an awful, awful thing to admit...but it is true!) and I thought to myself, "Why CAN'T I just go out for a nice little five-mile jog?" SO, I hurried home from work, quickly changed into running gear and hit the road. It felt great (mentally)...but my body felt awful. My form had to be completely heinous-looking. I truly hope that no one I knew saw me out there running! Not pretty at all. But, it got the job done :). It had been NINE days since the previous run....

Here's my running performance in the past few weeks:
1. Sunday, September 26--Quad Cities Marathon: 3:53:51 finishing time...8:56 pace....227/695 finishers....58/256 women......12/49 in my division...and a PR!!! :) :)
2. Saturday, October 2--Run the Woods: 25:46.1 finishing time....8:19 pace.....51/184 runners and 2nd in my age group (I would like to point out that this was 26 seconds faster than my Run the Woods time last year...which is impressive in my mind because last year I ran the race the weekend before the Chicago Marathon...and this year I ran it the weekend AFTER the Quad Cities Marathon, following knee issues and in the midst of some pretty painful Achilles tendinitis! Woot!)
3. Tuesday, October 12--I ran five miles at a 10 min/mile pace (UGH!) just to keep my sanity and to "say goodbye" to running for a while until my body is fixed.

So, just 34.3 miles in the past 3 weeks...when I am used to doing that many miles (give or take a few here or there) in one week!

So...goodbye for a few days (hopefully not WEEKS), dear running! Hope to see you SOON! :)

Maybe I'll have to figure out some sort of other hobby/vice to keep myself occupied ;).