Did not start.

Those are words no runner wants to see. But, I’ve decided to not run my next race-Rock n Roll San Jose-on October 4. Ever since my half about 2 weeks ago, my plantar fasciitis has been flaring worse than ever. After the race, I couldn’t walk for 2 days. I can’t go through day to day life without pain, and my training runs since the race I’ve gutted out. With my plantar fasciitis in the past, running wasn’t too much of a problem, but now it’s become extremely painful. Even worse is that the outside of my bad foot/ankle has started hurting as well.

In top of that, on my long run I felt totally undertrained. I was going to go into the race undertrained and with bad feet-I can’t even imagine what the aftermath of this race would be like.

And then I realized-why? Why would I torture myself to run this race? It’s not the race I trained for all summer-that one is over. (And I’m grateful I was able to explore DC on foot in the process.) I’m not getting paid to do this. No one is forcing me-I’m not a pro-runner. I think as a blogger it’s easy to get caught up in the hype of racing and the seriousness of the process.

So I’m actually doing the smart thing and taking a DNS. I’m bummed about this, but I would be even more bummed by slogging through painful runs leading up to race day, and the pain that would follow, not to mention the risk of a more serious or permanent injury.

The fact that I’m having trouble dragging myself out to run now because I’m lazy (my normal reason) but because I can’t stand the thought of pain is a sign that I need to take a step back. This foot issue was something I could deal with before, but it’s worse than it’s ever been and it’s time for a break. Starting Saturday, I am going to take 2 complete weeks off from running. By forgoing the race, in the day I would have raced I may be able to run pain free again. Worth it.

So expect to see lots of rowing and spinning in the next couple of week! In addition, I will be doing lots of icing, stretching, and rolling. I have comfortable shoes and inserts of every walk of life now. I also got a night brace that I tried for the first time last night, and it seemed to help quite a bit! It basically just keeps my foot in a flexed position so that it is not so stiff when I wake up.

So, that’s where I am right now! Here’s to 2 weeks of rest!

Have you ever had to back out of a race? Do you have any tips for plantar fasciitis?