Nine Weeks to the Three Day

Nine weeks from today, two months from tomorrow, the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure gets underway in Washington, DC. When I signed up for this three and a half months ago, no way would I have thought how difficult this would turn out to be. But my crystal ball was cloudy that day.

I envisioned easily strolling along mile after mile, doing short walks during the week and long walks on weekends, seeing what friends would join in to keep me company, or even seeing if some local people doing the 3-Day would want to link up and train. Instead, I have been sidelined with plantar fasciitis for nearly three months. While not the worst thing in the world, it has been amazingly painful.

I feel grateful and blessed that I can finally walk several miles at a time, still with pain, but not feeling like a spike is being driven into my left heel. I am doing everything I can think of to try to get better. I should be walking 14 miles tomorrow, but that won't happen. I hope that within a month, my foot will be well enough to do back to back 10 or 12 mile walks.

It is stressful that I only have two months to prepare. While three 20 mile days is far from easy, it would not have been too bad for me had things been normal. But they are not, and while this is discouraging, it is far from the end of the world. At least I can start walking some miles again. And actually, I have been walking every day - just not intense and continuous miles. According to my pedometer, I have walked approximately 596 miles since April 4, an average of 5.46 miles a day - injured or not. So if I can start doing some long days soon, and my foot holds up, I can do this!