Denver Marathon Gets The Boot

Well, boys and girls, despite all your well-wishes and my fervent hopes (bordering on anti-fracture prayer obsession), I am indeed today in a boot. Stress fracture on second metatarsal bone. 3-4 weeks of no running and limited walking. Spectator status for the Denver Marathon on the 18th.

Luckily, I am well past the crying phase and have moved into the, "hey, my foot doesn't hurt as much with this big bad-ass boot on," and my persepctive has shifted.

Good things about my broken foot:

- The bone I broke heals relatively quickly and generally without complications or future issues

- No high heels for a month

- Boot is black--as opposed to the electric blue one I had when I broke my ankle and had surgery on it in high school--and therefore matches all of my clothing

- No surgery

- No crutches

- Getting sympathy votes
- More time to read
- Running timeslot(s) can become daily meditation timeslots (more on that later)

- Driving the electric carts at Target

- Good reason to finally try swimming again

- Less laundry, without running clothes to wash

Bad things about my broken foot:

- No running for a month

- No Denver Marathon, which means no extra-special Mile-High Experience medal

- Snow season is approaching--like, tomorrow--in Colorado

- Though black, boot is still ugly

- Driving a stickshift? Not so easy

- No running for a month

So, as you can see, the list of good things is actually longer than the list of bad things. Yes, I am really disappointed I don't get to do the race in a couple weeks (I really wanted that extra medal, dammit). My one big goal for 2009 was to run a marathon. Finally, after so many years of running, I committed myself to prepare for it and do it. I stuck with it, through ups and downs, intervals and lsd runs, and I was this close to making it....then, BOOM: failed.

And then yesterday I was thinking and it occured to me that I had run two half marathons this summer. A half, plus a half equals....a whole marathon. So, technically, I did achieve my goal of running a marathon this year; just not the way I had imagined or planned to do it. But life rarely gives you just what you are expecting; and that doesn't make the accomplishments any less valid or the ride any less fun. So, though disappointed, I am now actually kind of ok with the whole situation. Course, I may feel differently when the painkillers have worn off.

I might cry

Seriously, I might just cry. Seriously. I mean, seriously.

Rewind to Saturday. I ended up going for a run in the afternoon instead of the morning. I went on the nice, soft dirt trails at about 3:00. Beautiful day, feeling good...except for a very slight discomfort in my right foot. Ah! My shoe must be tied to tight. Easy to fix. Shoe loosened, continued on run. Foot discomfort gets more pronounced. 3 miles in, foot discomfort is now actual pain. Every strike of my right foot: pain. I stop to stretch, thinking perhaps it's a cramp or a tight muscle somewhere. Continue on run. Enter stronger foot pain. I now cannot run but must walk and the whole situation is bringing stinging tears to my eyes. I still have a mile home, I am in severe pain, and yet it's a beautiful fall day, the kind you just live to run for. My race is in two weeks and this feels like a very, very bad sign.

Flashforward to today. My foot is still in pain, it is swollen, I cannot walk without a limp, cannot bend it, cannot do steps. I fear fracture. Tomorrow I go see some fancy schmancy foot specialist that happens to be here in Vail (which, Vail, by the way is faaabbbbuuulooouuusss, it even snowed the pretty kind of powdery mountain snowflakes tonight). I have resigned myself to the distinct possibility that I will probably not be running my first-ever marathon in two weeks at the 2009 Denver Marathon. (SOB!) But I guess as long as I can heal whatever is wrong, and eventually run again....I'll be all good. Right after I stop crying and feeling sorry for myself.

The "X" being the spot in which centers the
severe pain; the arrow pointing to the region
to which the general swelling and puffiness radiates.