Running, or the lack of it...

It has been nearly 11 weeks since my last run. It was a glorious one and it left me in a lot of pain. I went to the e.r., was told I possibly had a stress fracture, and was sent home with an ace bandage and some pain pills. I called around to an orthopedic doctor and met with one at Northwestern in early October. She also suspected a stress fracture and sent me to get fitted for a walking cast/boot and ordered an mri. I had the mri and ten days later we confirmed the stress fracture in my fibula. I was ordered to wear the boot for 6-8 weeks, stay off my feet as much as possible and rest and ice and elevate whenever possible. Yeah sure. You try doing that with two small kids, a full time job, and a house to take care of.

I'm now out of the boot, walking everyday and I see the ortho on December 19th. I still have a little tenderness, but not pain. I hope that she will release me to start slowly working out again. Probably the elliptical and bike first, then short bouts of running. My fingers are crossed. I need to start half marathon training in January.

During this time of not being able to run, I have missed it enormously. I have craved it. I have had dreams about it. I have been both jealous and envious of my runner friends. I've been jealous and envious of complete strangers I've seen running along the streets. I've talked a lot less about running than I used to. Probably because I miss it so much.

So, early this week, I spent too much time looking at nailpolish and realized I was going to miss my train if I didn't hurry the eff up. I took off at a mad dash. Decked out in my North Face parka, winter boots, a backpack with my laptop and 20 pounds of other shit, and my bag of nailpolish. Those four short blocks of running was like heaven here on earth. I felt like I could run forever, even with my excess baggage. I still missed my train. And my leg was sore after I finally sat down. But, it didn't hurt. So, that's good news.