I called the foot doctor....

I have had pain in my left since the day after my marathon. I attempted a run on Saturday since my feet was feeling mostly better, I cut it to 2 miles as I could basically feel the pain right away. It wasn't that much worse than walking around on it so I figured it really couldn't hurt.

I WAS WRONG!! I was limping around the house in pain and I could barely put any weight on it for about 24 hours. I was frantically searching around the internet for possibilities of what it could be and based on the placement of the pain I thought it was peroneal tendonitis. I wasn't 100% sure so I decided at this point I needed to consult a professional and promptly found a podiatrist. I was lucky enough when I called Monday that they had an 1 opening on Tuesday otherwise I would have had to wait until early November.

As the podiatrist was having me push against his hand in different directions and pinpointing the spot of pain I was describing the uneven surface of the marathon and the dirt trail and he had this look like he knew what it was right away. He was going to take some X-Rays to make sure there wasn't anything structurally wrong with my bones.



The peroneal tendons run across the ankle to the mid-foot. One attaches in the location noted and the other goes in here and goes along the bottom of the foot.



As I guessed it, it was peroneal tendonitis..I should be a doctor...NOT! He promptly instructed me I have to take 4 - 6 weeks off from running and he gave me some few stretches to perform with the nice little sidenote "this tendon is the most difficult to get to and stretch"...AWESOME!! He also said if the pain is not gone in 6 weeks I would have to come back to see him and I would end up in a walking boot. Needless to say, I will be icing, stretching and not running until this is gone!!

My left leg can SUCK IT!! Anyone want to switch with me??

In talking with the doctor I remembered a little problem I had in 8th grade that I ended up on crutches & in an aircast for 2 weeks because of this same tendon! It likes to slide over the bone that sticks out on the outside of your ankle and will do this a few times a week. They just told me to live with it and if it got worse I would have to get a screw put in it. And the anterior shin splints I suffered from last winter was on my left leg.

I am determined to come back from this stronger than ever! So I will be getting cozy with the stationary bike, swimming pool and Jillian Michaels. I am secretly hoping that I can repeat last year and come back as a faster runner and triathlete. Just gives me more reason to work on my weaker areas of the triathlon and  hey, I was wanting to get in more cross training anyways!