NY marathon...on again, off again, on again, off again...

It's been a rocky road since my previous running update last month, talking about redundant body parts when my pesky little plantaris tendon - the "monkey muscle" as it's sometimes referred to in the medical world - was causing me grief. Why oh why, and not two months out from the NY marathon. It seemed like such a silly little injury, but as they say, anything that keeps you out of a major competition is a major issue. How true that is!!

So to cut a long story short, I'm out of the NY marathon (again) this year, finally cancelling my entry last week but in reality the writing had already been on the wall for several weeks. I've accepted it and moved on...but talk about frustration and disappointed!!! Words could not explain my torment and exasperation. But the sun still came up, the birds were singing and life went on...as it always does.

Often it's only when you finally let go of something you've been holding on to - for me it was the dream of running the NY marathon - that you realise you were actually building it up to be a much bigger deal than it actually is. We're not talking life and death here, just the trivial indulgence of running. In looking back I was obsessing about it all...the race, my injury, recovery, will I / won't I be able to run, the impact on my goals...and it was causing unending grief and frustration. So as much as I'm really, really, really disappointed not to be going I'm also relieved that the decision is made and Ms A won't need to endure my grumpiness that went with the situation.

But back to the details of the injury...

In my last update I'd just had a cortisone injection into the sheath of the tendon, where I first learned about the uniqueness of the plantaris...lucky me!! After 6 days of rest / no running I started running. It was OK, but not great. Trusting in the effect of the cortisone I kept on running, and it didn't really get any better or any worse; the trend seemed to slightly be towards being improved. Then I went for a longer run, and at about the 1 hour mark it got a bit worse...but I kept running. Eventually it got much worse - I think I undid the good of the treatment and was back to square one. A dumb, newby mistake.

So back to no running and almost a week later - now 4 weeks post initial injury - I had another cortisone. 8 days later I went for a run and 90 seconds later stopped, injured, and walked home. NY marathon was 4 weeks away and I was seriously running out of time, literally.

As luck would have it, the husband of one of Ms A's best friends is a very good orthopaedic surgeon, Dr T, specialising in foot and ankle. Although I'd contemplated cutting myself open and snipping the tendon I hadn't...just. But Dr T could do it properly, and he generously slotted me in 4 days later to once and for all get rid of the problem. I was relieved, even though it would 100% rule me out of NY, but would be back running within a week or so...pain free!!

Then something amazing happened. I had a work trip to Perth and while at the gym that evening thought I'd hop on the treadmill to confirm what I already knew...but to my surprise, I ran for 20 mins!!! How could that be? The next morning I ran for 45 mins and was in heaven...and NY had gone from < 50% chance to > 50% chance. The surgery was put off, and my spirits lifted.

But that didn't last long. Only 3 days later during a run that felt great, I got to the 30 min mark and things went bad. However, although it was in almost the same spot, the symptoms felt strangely different to the existing tendon problem - this was more like musclar knotting and tension in my calf, adjacent to the plantaris tendon. I can deal with muscle issues, I thought, as I hobbled home. At least I thought I could deal with muscle issues...

2.5 days later I thought it had loosened and eased, went for a run and got 30 seconds this time before turning to walk home. That was a make-or-break run, and since I was broken NY was back off...again. 4 days rest, physio, self massage and I tried another run which went multiple times better than the last one. Three times better, actually, meaning 90 seconds before it started to tighten up. It was like being whacked again, but this time seeing the whack come towards me. I was getting sick of walking back.

So here I am now after seeing my doctor this morning - she's not sure what it is since I'm symptom free now and really does feel like it has eased. The lumpiness where the knot - or spasm - was has softened and gone down. We're going to get an MRI scan done, and also to try a little run...I'm hopeful but realise the recent pattern of trying hasn't been good. Wish me luck...