The Black Hole that is an Injury...

Injury.

That horrible little word. It can absolutely crush and destroy the world around an athlete in a matter of years... months... days... hours... or minutes.

I've experienced two types of injuries in my time running.

The first was late in 2009. I originally thought it was a stress fracture in one of my metatarsals (foot bones), but looking back now believe it was some form of tendinitis. Back then I literally quit running for about 6 weeks, and it was completely gone when I started running again.

Jump forward to July/August of 2010 and I experienced a really odd pain in my left gluteus muscle. I was never able to figure out what that was, but again I took about 4-6 weeks off of running completely and it was gone.

Both of these times, I never really did anything to help it heal other than not running. I still cycled to maintain my cardiovascular fitness.

Fast forward now to Wednesday of last week. I did my usual hill repeats in the morning, plus an easy four mile road run before that. Well later that night I started experiencing some very familiar pain in the top of my left foot.

I looked up my training blog from 2009 and sure enough it was the exact same pain I was dealing with then. I of course tried to push it back and shrugged it off as just a weird tendon strain, and then ran another 8 or so road miles the next day at around a 7:30 pace.

It was somewhat painful, but not unbearable. I popped some ibuprofen and went out for another 4 road miles the next day at around a 7:40 pace and it was still there. Of course by this point I started frantically searching the internet for a diagnosis and of course a remedy.

I decided that I'd take Saturday off in hopes that would fix it, then run another 8 miles on Christmas Sunday. I ran 8 miles around a 7:30 pace, but the pain was still there, and possibly a bit worse.

Well, I had the new Timex GPS Run Trainer Watch for Christmas and HAD to test it out on some hilly Austin trails on Monday so I met up with Steven Moore in Austin to run the "Stairway from Hell" and "Emma Long Park".

My foot was hurting, but it wasn't a pain I couldn't run through. I finished 15 tough trail miles, but by the end I knew something was seriously wrong. I couldn't walk totally normal, and the spot on the top of my foot was sensitive not just to running, but to touch as well. The top of my foot was obviously a bit swollen, and the reality was really sinking in.

I'm injured.

All I could think was I'm injured a week away from a back to back road marathon weekend, a week and a half out from the Athens Big Fork Trail Marathon and about 6 weeks out from the Rocky Raccoon 100, which I'd just set a sub 20 hour goal for.

My emotions were varied, but the pure anger, and sadness were the most obvious. I was mad because I am human, I'm not invincible, and my plans can be taken away from me at any moment.

I was sad, because I LOVE racing. I love running through the woods with friends. I love running challenging trails. I just love running in general, and now it was on the verge of being taken away from me yet again by an injury. I hate to say it was devastating, but as an ultra runner I feel most of you will understand.

I did more research and have come to a conclusion. I'm 95% sure that I have Extensor Tendinitis in my left foot.

Now... here we are on Friday. The day before my new years eve marathon and two days before my new years day marathon.

I've stopped running. My last run was the 15 miles on Monday. I have fought with myself over what to do and have decided to NOT run either road marathons this weekend. While this was a hard decision, I'd have to be an idiot* to run two road marathons back to back with an injury. (*more of an idiot than usual)

I've been trying to treat it myself as best I can. I'm currently taking 6 Ibuprofen a day (2 3X a day), icing the top of my foot in the morning and afternoon for 20 minutes each time, and wearing an icy hot patch on the foot when I go to work at night. I work at a desk sitting down for the majority of the night, so I'm not doing much movement. Regardless I've decided to at least see a doctor next Monday just to rule out a stress fracture.

Thankfully, this has really helped so far. I'm unbelievably optimistic, but know that healing over use injuries takes some time, and they don't go away over night.

As for the Athens Big Fork Trail Marathon next weekend, I'm playing that one by ear right now. I'm going to continue treating my foot as I have been, I'm NOT going to run (will cycle an hour a day to help cardio), then I'll try a short run next Thursday or Friday. If the foot feels ok, I'll go ahead and run Athens. That's a race I've been wanting to do for years and I'm doing it if at all possible. Of course after the race I'll ICE, Rest, and Relax as much as possible.

As for Rocky Raccoon, I'm thinking that running a 100 in a month or so would be pretty stupid, but I'm not going to totally rule it out. I don't want to jeopardize the rest of my season. After Athens (if I run it) next weekend I'll make a call. I have till that Saturday to pull out of Rocky, so I'll have to make a decision that day after running Athens. If Athens goes OK, I'll stay in Rocky and run it on minimal training. If Athens shows ANY sign of pain, I'll pull out of Rocky and volunteer at the DamNation aid station with NTTR and Lynn Ballard.

Why am I telling you guys all of this? Maybe because I want you to feel sorry for me?

HELL NO!

:) I want you to appreciate each step you run. Each time something like this happens, it's just a reminder that none of us will be able to run forever.

Whatever you do, be smart in running, be smart in your training, and don't take injuries lightly. If you think something is wrong, it most likely is.

As always, I plan on coming out of this better than I came in.

But for now, I've gotta stay away from that black hole....

-Jacob