Grappling With PD

The inaugural Las Vegas marathon is one week from today. I signed up for it a year ago. I must accept the very real possibility that I may be unable to finish. How did I get here? I worked pretty hard from May through September this year to prepare.  Toward the end of summer I had begun to feel some persistent pain in my left heel. In mid-September I took a week and a half off to take my daughter to college, during which I walked a lot but did not run at all.  That inactivity left me well-rested upon my return, and I had a pretty good long run that Saturday.  However, succeeding Saturday morning long runs were characterized by decreasing performance.  This result came from running less to allow my heel to heal.  I was willing to accept being a little out of shape in exchange for pain-free feet, but surprisingly, the pain in my heel did not decrease. I had long been planning to take a week off before the marathon, but having taken far more than just a week, I als...

When I write my blog entries, I try to be as unbiased and accurate as possible.  Sometimes events make me look good, sometimes bad, but it's never about beating myself up, and it's never about bragging.  Except today.  I'm feeling really good about this particular event, so I'm gonna brag.  Just a little. First the background.  This part of the continuing saga of the injured left little finger, begun in previous entries.  I have been trying to make progress on diagnosis and treatment, but it has been difficult and slow.  Who knew the little finger could present such a big challenge?  In spite of the fact that it never was broken, it has been splinted virtually nonstop for over two months.  In that time I have used three different types of splint: 1) the traditional "tie or tape it to something stiff" variety; 2) the thermal-molded plastic or fabric variety; and 3) the sprin-mechanism variety.  The goal at this point is not to keep it str...