Plantar F#*@#$*itis

So - I'm pretty sure I have plantar fasciitis. I've felt it since I ran the marathon on June 20th and I have only run 3 times since then - all with pain in my heel. I'm pretty stubborn, and usually ignore aches and pains, but when your foot hurts every time you run you've got to pay attention. Feet are kind of critical to the entire process.

I' ve never had this before, and so I've been doing extensive research (googling)to figure out how to get it under control. On the advice of my physician (ok, not really, he's just my friend Matt who is a doctor and a runner who I called and he talked me down from freaking out and agreed with me that it sounds like Plantar Fasciitis) I am taking ibuprofen 3x daily, icing, rolling my foot and (gulp) NOT RUNNING. I've got two races coming up - one is the Lacamas Lake Half Marathon and the other one is this little race you might have heard of called Hood to Coast.

LaCamas Lake was just a race I signed up for to stay motivated post marathon and to be ready for Hood to Coast - so I will not be devestated if I can't run it. My husband is running, but we don't run together anyway, so it's not like he'll miss me and my charming personality. Hood to Coast though is one of my favorite things in the world. The goal is to get this fixed and ready for this race. So, to make sure I don't completely lose my fitness while I'm recovering I'm looking at...pool running. Hello SUAR, I'm about to feel your pain.

Yesterday I called around to pools to find out where I could go to do pool running. I found one right by my sister's house which is great because she will watch my kiddos while I get in the pool and run to....the exact same place in the pool. I have a great attitude about this - clearly it's going to be awesome.

Oh my god this is hard! I don't know what to do with myself without running! I will also keep up with yoga and I'm a pretty big devotee of Jillian Michael's DVD's because they are hard and keep you moving, so I'll probably be doing more of those as well. I tried one out yesterday (and oh yeah, feeling sore today in a good way!) so I'll be doing those more regularly as well.

So - this is my sob story. I need to try to maintain a good attitude through this and remind myself that it's going to be worth it to be able to run Hood to Coast pain free.