Another foot-related pun in the title (I swear the titles are better than the actual material in the posts that follow).
The time has gone by since the last blog update and we are now in the month of March. There has been a slight amelioration in the quality of the weather and the temperature. I say "slight," it's barely noticeable up here where rainy days are ten a penny. I went for a run on Sunday afternoon, observing that the sun had come out, and being of the impression that the weather was pleasant and that it would be a good day. Unfortunately, it was deceptively sunny because it was still rather cold, and about 25 minutes into the run, it began to rain. Ten minutes after this, the rain stopped, the sun emerged from wherever it had temporarily disappeared, and dried up the wetness caused by the rain, and a little that had been caused by excessive sweating. So far, so good, and I continued my run. Six miles in, I decided to take a little detour and venture further North. I ran past Bury and into a small town called Walmersley. Just as I had completed the eighth mile, it began to rain again. Not in the same way as before, though - this was torrential rain, an absolute downpour. It was like the heavens had opened and some giant creature from above had decided to urinate on me continuously for half an hour. At the end of this constant soaking, I was thoroughly drenched, looking like a drowned kitten. Eventually the sun reappeared and I carried on running. That's the thing with weather. It doesn't matter whether the weather is sunny or rainy or even snowy during the marathon - you have to run it, whatever the weather is like. You can't let a bit of inclement weather defeat you. I'm not that easily defeated anyway. In fact, I think I prefer rain to excessive sunshine, as too much heat makes me dehydrate and sweat even more profusely.
Anyway, the run continued and the rain stayed away for the rest of the duration that I was outside. At some point, about 17 or 18 miles in, I began to feel a slight pain in the back of my foot. I carried on running because I was only a short distance from home, but once I arrived at my flat, the pain was more pronounced and it did start to hurt a bit. I rested my foot and gave it some ice treatment and kept it elevated, saw a physiotherapist the next day, who rather optimistically told me that my leg and foot were fine and that I could go for a run the very next day. I chose not to take his advice and rest the foot a bit longer, and decided this morning to do a "short" run of 5 miles. The run was fine. I did feel a slight twinge as I'm still in recovery, but no pain, so hopefully I'm on the mend. My feet are still attached to the end of my legs, so as far as I'm concerned, I'm OK. It might be time to replace my running shoes as I have got a good 800 miles or so out of them, possibly even 1000 miles, and perhaps that is the reason why my feet are feeling a bit tender occasionally. I can't see any major signs of wear and tear and I'm not entirely certain how often one should change their running shoes, as surely that depends on the person's weight and gait and the frequency and distance of their running.
Then again, perhaps my shoes are absolutely fine and not at all worn out, in which case I'd be spending £100 for nothing, but £100 on a new pair of running shoes is a better price to pay than £200 for some physiotherapy sessions if I get injured again. I'm not a skinflint, it's not the money. I'm just very attached to my current pair of trainers. They've been with me every step of the way of this journey. Quite literally. It will be hard to replace them. But there's no room for sentimentality. Time to get a new pair. Better to be safe than sorry.
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