Fitness Recap, October, and some Legitimate Worries

My marathon is less than a week away, and I'm nervous.  More nervous than usual, because I have been having foot troubles.  It all started in the middle of my 20 miler.  This was my last big training run.  It was going well, and I was cruising along at the 15 mile mark when I felt it.  Pain in my right foot, manifesting itself around my ankle.  I hadn't misstepped.  I didn't trip.  There was nothing in particular to mark the moment.  I continued running, and around mile 18 the pain let up.  There was no swelling or bruising afterwards.  So I forgot about it. 

That week I ran a couple of 5 milers.  Then I set out to do a 10 mile run.  And around mile 5 I ran into trouble.  Big trouble from the foot.  Such big trouble, I stopped after only 6 miles.  This is truly something I never do. 

Since then, I've been tending the foot.  I actually feel like this is the same issue that plagued me just before the San Francisco marathon in 2007, but that it is just manifesting itself slightly differently.  At any rate, I've been doing arnica gel, ibuprofin alternated with bromelain to reduce inflammation, and ice buckets.  The injury is deep inside the heel of my foot, so regular ice packs don't cut it.  What works is a big bucket filled with Epsom salts and ice.  It's so cold that it hurts in your bones when you stick a foot in, but after 20 minutes it sure does help.  I also (gulp) took an entire week off.  Granted, I was supposed to be tapering anyhow - but I certainly didn't plan to not run for a week!  I hope that this has helped the injury to heel.  I have been running again the past couple of days - light 3 milers - and I can feel it but it hasn't been a huge issue.  I'll continue to ice up until the race (do you think hotel ice buckets come in size 7 1/2?). 

At any rate, my monthly mileage total has been less than expected because of the week off.  Total came in at 106.  I have tried to compensate a bit by resuming weight lifting and ab work (and partly because I'm getting totally stir crazy with running such low mileage). 

We leave on Friday to take the train up to NYC.  I've waited so long to do this marathon, I really hope that my foot will hold its own come Sunday.  I've never DNF'd (did not finish) a race before, and I certainly don't want NYC to be a DNF.  Stay tuned!