Skidding to a halt

After having not run in a week and after not feeling any improvement in my sore foot I finally saw a doctor today. He gave me just about the worst news I could get without using the words "surgery" or "amputate." That is, I have a stress fracture of the navicular bone in my right foot. It'll be confirmed with an MRI tomorrow, but I am booted for the next six weeks and will have to slowly resume physical activity after that. Essentially my running year is over. I'm pretty sure it happened when I strained my calf running last weekend and had to hobble 4.5 miles back to my car. It's very likely (to me) that I put too much pressure on my foot compensating for my calf over the long distance and that's what did it. Or not. I'm not a doctor so I'm trading in wild speculation. On the positive side, my strained calf feels great after a week of rest.


The new look of my lower extremity. It's all the rage.
Seriously, this is pretty bad news. I am was training for the Las Vegas Rock N Roll half marathon on December 4, and that registration is three things that are all bad for me now: very expensive, non-refundable, non-transferable. I'm out whatever I paid, which I think was around $90. And I won't be able to wear the t-shirt or any of that stuff that I'll get because I'm not running. That sucks hard. However, I can now spend the whole weekend in Vegas drunk instead of just half the weekend in Vegas drunk, because this trip is already paid for and there's no chance that I'm not going.

I don't know what my injury means for this blog. It's hard to be upbeat about running when you can't run and I'm not going to spend a lot of time whining about how it bruises my soul to watch other people run. It's also hard to talk about gear and experiences when you're not using any or having any. And it's not like anyone wants me to write about my kid's youth football team and how they're absolutely crushing the competition this year. It's a shame because things were really starting to move on this blog (meaning more people were contacting me offering me free stuff to try out and review) and now there's no reason for them to for a while. But I'm sure I'll have something to say so check back. I am due for my annual anti-Komen Race for the Cure rant since this breast cancer awareness month, after all.

If there is one piece of advice I can impart for now it's that if you hurt yourself and you're miles away from home or your car either carry a phone to call someone to get you or find a cab or something. I hobbled right past a convenience store on the way back to my car and I probably could have stopped there for some help but was too stubborn. And now I'm not running for at least a couple months because of that. (Or not. Wild speculation again.)