Don't Be Nervous!

I cannot lie: as excited as I am to run my first 5k, I am JUST {if not more} nervous.

Here's why:

This past April I started getting a pain in my left foot.  I pulled a typical Mo and did NOT get it checked...for 2 months.  Even then I ONLY went to the doctor because I could barely walk without extreme pain & my mom pulled out her "mom card" and kept nagging encouraging me to go.  I was told I had Plantar Fasciitis and that since I let it go on for so long without treatment {yes, Mom, you were right} I needed to stay OFF my foot for a month.

SAY WHAT?!?!

I was JUST getting back into exercise {I had already lost 20 pounds in the past 5 months} and this was NOT what I needed.

So I pulled another typical Mo and only partially listened to what the doctor had to say.

Yeah, I did not get better.  UNTIL I finally did listen and only put pressure on my foot when I had to {did I mention we were moving at the time}, and wore tennis shoes all the time.  In summer.  In the Central Valley.

***Please Note:  Shoes on my feet in the summer is my own personal hell!***

But I did it, and I started feeling better.  I went back to the doctor and was told that was a good first step {no pun intended} but until the pain was at least 80% gone, don't do exercises that put massive pressure on my foot.  Crap!

Fast forward to December.

It was a few days before Christmas when I woke up and realized "Holy crap!  I haven't had that pain in my foot for a few days now!"  IT WAS A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!  ;-)

Two days after Christmas, Gary & I started taking regular walks around the neighborhood, slowly upping our time and mileage.  Every morning I would walk up pain free.

Occasionally I would wake up with a dull pain.  To me that meant taking a day off, which has so far worked.

These past few weeks I have slowly been adding jogging to my routine.  Never 2 days in a row.  Not pushing myself into an injury again.

I am soooo afraid that I will do something to mess my foot up again and be on couch-rest.

But I'm not letting that fear stop me.

I stretch my foot everyday & I massage it using this special prickly ball I bought on Amazon.com.

I WILL cross that finish line in June, and in doing so, kick Plantar Fasciitis in the ass {with my good foot, of course}!

***Have any of you ever suffered an injury that kept you off your game for a long time?***