Back in April, I wrote a post about how I had been consistently running for an entire year.

Today, I’m sharing a post explaining why I may not be running anymore at all.

First, a little history. If you read my blog, you know that my husband and I recently got to go to Japan for 11 days to celebrate our 10th anniversary. We left May 11 and returned May 21. Among the many other things we did there, we also did a ton of walking! I don’t remember a specific instance of injuring my foot, but about halfway through our trip my left foot was hurting pretty badly. So much so, that I opted out of doing some of the things we had originally planned to do on our trip.

I hadn’t been running or exercising on our trip, so after we got back I decided I’d wait a few days and then try going for a run. My foot still hurt, but I pushed through the pain (being stubborn comes in handy sometimes.) I ran two more times that week, and then decided that the pain was getting worse. I told myself I’d take a week off of running to let my foot heal. I wasn’t too happy about this, but I had done this before in the past for injuries, and figured this was just another one of those times. No big deal, I’d just wait a week or so and then get back into it.

I actually ended up waiting a week and a half before I got back out to go running one morning. I had not been having any pain for 4 or 5 days, so I was optimistic as I headed out on my 2.7 mile route. I think about halfway through my run was when I could tell that left foot was beginning to hurt again. By the time I made it home, the pain was bad. And this time, my ankle was swollen too.

Some people might have chosen that day to make an appointment to go to the doctor, but not me (remember, stubborn!) I thought I’d rest it, ice it, etc. and see if it got better. After an entire week of having a swollen ankle, I made the appointment.

“If I had your feet, I think I’d cry every day I had to walk on them.” 

Not exactly what you want to hear from your doctor, or anyone for that matter. He told me that I had most likely sprained a muscle or ligament and wanted me to wear a boot for a few weeks. He told me that I should never wear flip-flops or cute shoes again – I needed to go for the “ugly old lady shoes.” He also told me, that because of the way my feet are designed, my left foot bends too far to one side, which means I overcompensate and put all my weight on one spot on the other side of my foot – which is what caused my injury. He told me I was not built (literally, my feet were not designed) to be a runner, and that I should look for a new sport.

At the physical therapist’s office the next day when I was getting fitted for my boot, I noticed the waiting room had a lot of inspirational quotes on the walls – you know, some of those “Chicken Soup for the Soul-ish” types of quotes. One of the quotes was, “Don’t focus on what you can’t do, focus on what you can do.” As I sat there with my swollen ankle, thinking about how I might not be able to run anymore without risking injury to myself, I silently scoffed and rolled my eyes at this rather chipper proclamation on the wall.

It’s been about 3 weeks since that first doctor’s appointment. I’ve spent 2 of those weeks in a boot, and am currently set to wear a smaller ankle brace for at least 5 more weeks before going back to an orthopedic foot doctor. At that point we’ll determine what my future looks like as far as running goes if everything has healed properly – I at least know for sure that my flip-flop days are behind me. I thought I would be much older than 32 when I would need to stop wearing cute shoes, but life doesn’t go as expected.

That inspirational quote keeps popping into my head when I think about these past two months. While it’s frustrating to not be able to do things just the way I want to, I know there’s still a lot I can do – and much of what I still can do includes things others do not get the privilege of enjoying.

Anyone else out there with bad feet? Got any new ideas for sports to replace running?