Oh My Aching Heel!

"Spring" temperature: 45 degrees; splits 9:31; 10:08; 10:18; 10:18; 10:34; 10:41 1:01:31 total for 6 miles; 10:16 per mile pace.

I debated whether or not it would be wise to run two days in a row. On one hand, my heel was feeling fine. Sure, it hurt a little bit whenever I stepped a certain way, or stood on it too long. That was a legitimate reason to rest, especially since I took tomorrow off from work and could run then. On the other hand, I had a plan. Today I was being a good husband and bringing my wife's car to a co-worker's house so that her husband and her son, a student in my classroom, could tune it up. Their house is 5 miles from my home. So my strategy was to drive the car there, do my second day of Jeff Galloway method marathon training, and run home. I decided to follow the same plan as yesterday, where I ran for 5 minutes, walked for a minute, and ran for 5 minutes.
After repeatedly refusing a ride and reassuring my co-worker that I would be fine running home, ("Yes, I'm aware that it is overcast and supposed to rain;" "No, I'm not going to run on Route 10;" "Yes, I have my cell phone;" "Don't worry, I'm wearing my runner's id.") off I went. The street they live on gave me a nice downhill start-perfect for practicing Jeff's "acceleration-gliders." It was also perfect for an early start to feeling twinges of pain in my heel. Surviving the downhill, I turned left, started my marathon form of feet low to the ground, upright posture with a balanced body, light, increased turnover of feet with minimal springing, and striving to feel relaxed, comfortable, and smooth. A light mist was falling, and my glasses were already getting foggy. I ran on the shoulder and waited for an opening in traffic so I could cross and run on the sidewalk. I purposely had not worn my mp3 player, knowing I needed to have all my senses aware of my surroundings. Finally seeing what I thought was a break in traffic, I ran across the street and was startled by a vehicle beeping its horn. Apparently I wasn't keeping my glasses as fog free and spot free as I thought, as I hadn't even seen the bright red truck before I crossed. About a minute later, still running on the sidewalk, I again heard a horn beep. I knew I was definitely out of traffic's way, and laughed when I saw my co-worker's husband drive by and wave. I was fortunate to arrive at the only traffic light I would have to deal with just as it turned green. I gave the "Mr. America" wave as the drivers allowed me the right of way. About halfway into the run, it started raining. Rain doesn't generally bother me, as it's an annoyance rather than a hinderence. The run-walk-run breaks really were helping, since they were giving my heel a break, plus allowing me to clean my glasses the best I could with a soggy shirt. As I continued to run, the rainy, overcast, and chilly day brought back memories of my first marathon last May. Those memories helped me tune out the fact that it was raining harder, and my heel was hurting me more. I chose to run home a different route than I had driven, in order to avoid a "killer hill" that I would have to run up. Of course my alternate route consisted of a mile+ series of hills that was an incline of 300 feet total. However, my run-walk-run helped me to easily conquer the hills and keep the level of pain the same. As I was almost home I realized my detour had added some distance onto my run. Rather than stop after 5 3/4 miles, I added a few loops and ran 6 miles even. Definitely a feeling of satisfaction having defeated the elements and my heel pain. I'm completing this post at 4:30 the following day, and my heel pain is worse than ever. If it persists, I'm going to schedule a return appointment with my podiatrist.