Tag: foot surgery

Disneyland half marathon 2024 medals

I Can Do Hard Things: Running My First (Disneyland) Half Marathon!

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My husband and I just completed our very first half marathon at the Happiest Place on Earth: Disneyland!

The race started at 5am – we woke up at 3am to get ready and it was about a 30 minute walk to the starting gates. We we in the last corral (the “party” group – aka. “business in front, party in the back”), so we didn’t actually start running until about 5:45am.

There were SO many people crowded into a small space – we started off at a slow pace, about 13-minute miles, but that was okay (the pacer car picked up people who were slower than 16-minute miles). There were a few times we bottle-necked on the race – at mile 3 where there was a narrow curve and they had conveniently also put a water station in the same spot, and around mile 4 as we tried to run across the Sleeping Beauty Castle bridge and pretty much came to a complete stop.

We did not wait in any lines to take pictures with characters on the route, because we were afraid we would lose too much time and get swept by the pacer car! Maybe next time if we’re more confident…

“Action shot” of Captain AmERICA
Waiting in our corral (the “party” group)

Miles 2-5 we were in the Disney parks, staring in California Adventure and then going to Disneyland – and the last 8 miles of the route were along the roads and highways of Anaheim (not super exciting, but that’s okay!)

The route was a bit treacherous – we were warned by multiple people and also on the Run Disneyland Facebook group to watch out for slippery spots and potholes on the trail. I think since we had a slow pace, we were not in as much danger of falling as the faster runners – we passed a spot where someone had wiped out and there was (what appeared to be) blood – more than what a simple scraped knee would have merited(!)

Miles 10-13 were the hardest for me. My pace slowed down, and my legs felt so heavy. My knees were killing me too. The farthest distance I had ever run previously was 12 miles, so I knew I could do it, but I was so ready to be done!

We had some spectators cheering us on, and some of the signs were pretty funny. Here were a few of my favorites:

“I’m sure this seemed like a good idea 11 months ago”

“Worst Disney parade ever”

“Run like your copyright is expiring”

At the finish line, they had announcers, and Mickey and Minnie were there cheering us on! The announcer literally said, “You weren’t the fastest, but you finished!” (I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or be slightly offended – we decided to laugh!)

“The proof you can do hard things is one of the most powerful gifts you can give yourself.”

Nat Eliason

I am still a little bit in shock that I actually ran 13.1 miles. This is something I never thought I was going to be able to do – the task seemed so insurmountable. Especially because four years ago I had foot pain and swelling (a complication from running) which ended up with me needing foot surgery and with one of my doctors telling me that my feet were “not designed for running” and maybe I’d like to take up swimming instead?

It took me a year and a half of healing and recovery (cue the knee scooters, crutches, and physical therapy) before I could really start running again after that surgery.

So what possessed me to want to run a half marathon? What made me think I could even do it?

A year ago in January of 2023, I was going through a really dark time. I had a lot of anger and depression, and I guess grief too. I decided that running would be a good way to channel all those negative feelings into something positive. I fully expected to run out of steam, but I never did.

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Brooks rainbow running shoes

3 Years After Foot Surgery – Training for a Half Marathon

EricaLeave a comment

Three years ago, on February 4, 2020, I had foot surgery. The short version is that I have really flat feet, and somehow the muscles and tendons in my foot kind of stopped working to “hold my arch up”… and it was determined that I needed surgery to correct this. It was a long road afterwards to simply get to walking normally again, but 5 months later I finished physical therapy and started working towards running once more.

(You can read the long version here.)

Even a year after my surgery, I would still wake up with a bit of a limp and my foot would feel really stiff. That eventually got better, but as I picked up running farther and longer, I began having knee pain in the opposite leg. I discovered that how I walked and even how I stood had changed a bit since surgery, and I was a bit unbalanced. *cue more physical therapy*

In the latter half of 2022, I decided to try just going back to the gym and doing strengthening workouts, as well as signing up for a yoga class. I wasn’t running much at all anymore, except for maybe 10 or 15 minutes on the treadmill a few times a week.

This was fine and good, but I did still really miss running, especially running outside.

The university I work at has a lovely 2-mile trail around its perimeter, and it’s great for jogging. I actually live close enough to the university that I can run from my house around the trail and back, and it’s close to a 3-mile route.

2-mile Lunsford walking trail – and my knee scooter


One time, many years ago (back in 2018) I thought it would be fun to train for a half marathon – with the hopes that maybe someday I could participate in a Disney marathon. (There’s a Disney princess half marathon and all the runners dress up and wear tutus and things, and you get to run around the theme parks, it looks so fun!) I ran around the trail 2 times, and ended up logging about 4.5 miles total. Afterwards, I had so much knee pain that I decided a half marathon would never be in my future. That was literally the farthest distance I have ever run, and I’ve never gotten anywhere close to that ever again.

*cue January 2023*

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Image of foot with bones

2 Years After Foot Surgery – Slow But Steady Progress!

EricaLeave a comment

Two years ago was Feb 4, 2020. The “before-COVID” times. It was also the day I had foot surgery, specifically an osteotomy, to address my inflamed posterior tibial tendon (aka. my flat arches were causing issues). I had to have three large incisions on my left foot, and one on my calf to “lengthen my calf muscle.”

Afterwards I had to be non-weight bearing on my left foot for four weeks, and I was riding around on a knee scooter like a pro! Then I used crutches for four weeks, and after that did three months of physical therapy. You can read more about the details here, and even see gross post-surgery foot pictures if you want to!

The healing process felt never-ending. Even after I was discharged from physical therapy, I wasn’t back to normal. I still had a bit of a limp sometimes. When I first got up in the morning, my left foot was stiff and I would hobble around for a while until it loosened up. I wasn’t sure I would ever be able to go running again, and honestly I was kind of afraid to, since that was the catalyst for my injury.

Even one year later, I was still keenly aware of some of my limitations that I hadn’t had before my foot injury – like experiencing some residual foot pain and always needing to wear supportive/orthotic shoes.

I think it’s valuable to take a moment today to look back and remember where I was two years ago, so that I can fully appreciate just how far I’ve come in terms of recovery. In my post from May of 2020 (four months after the surgery) I had written:

My foot is not perfect, I’m still waiting for that glorious day when I can do a heel raise while standing only on my left foot, but I’m not there yet. I’m longing for when I can go on a walk around the block without limping or feeling sore, and I’m dreaming about a day when I might be able to go for a jog again.

May 2020

Later that year in October, five months after writing those words, I went for my first post-surgery jog. It had been 17 months since I had been able to run. I couldn’t run as far or as fast, and my foot was really sore after, but I did it.

How often do we get to receive the things our hearts are so desperately longing for? Honestly, it may be more often than we think. If you do any sort of journaling – whether it’s personal writing, blogging, or even photo journaling – it makes it easy to see where you were and how far you’ve come.

Many times we get the exact things we’re hoping for, and we’re happy for a little while, but then we move on to hoping for the next thing, and then the thing after that. It’s easy to feel like we haven’t “made it” yet because there’s always something we are looking to accomplish next.

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