I'm back!

You didn't think you could get rid of me that easily, did you?

It has come to pass that I am going to run another marathon, and also that I am unable to run at the moment. Yes, this is about as contradictory as it sounds. After taking about three months off from running post-marathon, I started running again at the end of January and quickly developed an ankle problem. My left ankle would start hurting after about a half-mile of running -- not horrible pain, but enough that it wasn't fun to run. When it didn't go away on its own, I finally went to the sports medicine clinic at Campus Health Services on March 22. Three doctors examined my ankle and finally concluded that I probably had bursitis -- that is, inflammation of the bursa, which is the fluid-filled sac that provides a cushion between the Achilles tendon and the ankle bone. They explained that it's a self-perpetuating problem: the bursa gets a little bit inflamed from sudden overuse, causing it to get in its own way, causing more inflammation, etc. Their prescription: rest, ice, no stairs, should be better in a couple of weeks. I took them very seriously, and for the last month have followed their instructions obsessively, plus avoided sandals and taken two daily doses of ibuprofen to combat inflammation. Yesterday I got on a treadmill for the first time in a month to see how it's doing. The verdict: not well. It felt about the same as it felt a month ago. What a bummer! Tomorrow I'll call the sports medicine doc for another appointment to see what else they can do for me.

In the meantime, however, the idea of doing another marathon has started to sound good over the last couple of months. So, I entered the lottery to get into this year's Nike Women's Marathon, which is the same marathon I did last year. In order to get into this marathon without Team In Training, you have to be selected through a random lottery system, which they use for fairness because it's such a popular event. I found out on Friday that I got in! This is very exciting, because the marathon last year was such a great experience.

So, here's hoping that within a month, my ankle will be better and I can start training. My plan is to blog about my training like I did last year, because it was a great motivator and a fun way to keep track of what I'd done.