Embarcadero 10k

No need to freak out, folks, it's not as bad as it looks!  Just as a precaution, I went to my doctor to get my foot checked out after the Mardi Gras Marathon.  Get this, I went to get my good foot looked at.  Apparently, I was favoring my good foot to save my bad foot during the race, so by the end of 26.2 miles, my bad foot was fine, but my good foot ended up getting the boot.  Did you catch the adianoeta there?

In any case, my podiatrist noted that I suffered capsulitis of the right second metatarsal phalangeal joint, which basically means that my joints got inflamed. The cause? Over use. Surprise surprise. I'm glad there was no torn ligaments or stress fractures. The foot doctor hooked me up with a not-so-fashion-forward boot and some Ibuprofen. Geez, the last time I was at Kaiser for kidney stones I scored morphine, this time all I got was boring old Ibuprofen! The good doctor instructed me to stay off that foot until it healed. My response to him: "But I have a marathon in five days!" He replied, "You runners are so damn stubborn. I should have just put you in a cast!" My doctor delivered that line in such a dead pan manner that I wasn't sure if he was kidding or not, so my natural reaction was to retreat and cower like a dog with it's tail between it's legs. I looked at my reflection in the window and saw the same look my dog gave me when I yelled at her for stealing part of my salami sandwich.  You know that look:

"Oh come on, why are you yelling at me? It was cheap salami!"

I'm glad this injury was nothing serious, but I did take it seriously. I listened to my doctor and pulled out of two marathons.  The foot ultimately healed within a week's time, but I still felt a slight pinch when I tried running, so I decided to put a halt to any training.  Two full weeks later, I got back into the game and ran a local 10k with my running club, Dolphin South End Runners.  I took it very slow and steady and finished the 6.2 miles in a little under 90 minutes.  Yeah, that's a long time, but I had to ease myself back into it.  The good news: I felt no pain.  The even better news: I got to debut my new Endorphin Dude winter hat!