Plantar Fasciitis... It's not as fun as it sounds

This is what sexy 50k training looks like most night at my house.

I was diagnosed with Plantar Fasciitis about six years ago. It was before I ever even thought of running my first step. Plantar Fasciitis hurts. In my case I let it get to the point that when I would walk in the front door after work I would literally crawl around my house because it hurt too badly to walk on my feet for another minute. When I finally gave in and went to a podiatrist, he gave me this splint, put me on a steroid pack, and sent me to physical therapy. Physical therapy was torture!!! If you have ever had Graston preformed on you, it's awful. On the bottom of your foot it looks like this

It was miserable, but it worked. And towards the end of my physical therapy, I started dabbling in running. So it was worth every second.

Since then the old Plantar Faciitis demon rears it's head off and on, but bringing out the brace at nights and some ice packs normally clear things up. It's just kind of a thing I deal with.

As you might have guessed, it reared its ugly head big time a few weeks ago.... but I couldn't get it to go away. That's when the panic set it. You know how there are 7 stages of mourning? I think I went through about three stages of possible 50k training injury freak out:

1) PANIC!!! OMG what if I can't do the race? I've been thinking about this race for a year! I want to do this race so badly. What if it's ruptured? What if it's tearing? Screw this race... what if I'm crippled? What if I can never run again? What if they cut my foot off (seriously, things get dramatic fast in my brain)?

2) Calming self-talk - It's not like the race doesn't happen every year. I could do it next year. I mean sheesh, it's not worth having a hissy fit. I could even volunteer. They do treat their volunteers well..

3) Logic - Why don't I just call the podiatrist that diagnosed me and have him check it out... duh.

So I went to the doc. And he said that yeah, it's inflamed. BUT... with some ice packs on a regular basis, my dear old night splint, and some steroids (not the good Lance Armstrong kind, the kind that make you retain water and eat a lot) I should be good to go! YEAH!!!

I now return to training cautiously optimistic!!! AND Shalene Flanagan tweeted something about struggling with Plantar Faciits too. SOOOOoooo.... since we both struggle with Plantar Faciitis, we're kind of exactly the same, right? RIGHT! I'm EXACTLY like an Olympic marathoner!!!!