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It’s official. I quit with the running thing for a while forever. It’s going to take a while I’m never going to get the hang of running learn how to run. That may sound silly, as everyone can run, i.e., move faster than a walk, but I’m talking about really running. I haven’t had a really good run without pain yet. I thought Friday would be my day; it wasn’t.

So, remember those great running shoes I blogged about? You remember, the ones I got measured for and everything? The ones that were supposed to allow me to run pain free for the first time in years so I could really access what I can do now and decide where I want to go, running wise? Well, they let me down in a big way. These weren’t the shoes for me. I am not a runner; I just have to accept that fact.

But enough self-recrimination; let’s stick with facts. I was excited to run in my new shoes pain free. I wanted nothing more than to see how much endurance I had for jogging. After days of working out inside all week, I was ready to hit the dusty trail. I changed at work after I clocked out (my new shoes and exercise clothes were in the car waiting) and headed straight to the park.

Upon getting to the park, I stretched my achilles/calves and hamstrings and did a five minute plus warm up walk. Once I’d gotten to my usual begin jogging place, I excitedly started up a slow jog.

I wasn’t halfway to the usual walking spot before I had to stop and take the shoes off for a bit. There was a weird pain in my arch/on the side of my heel. It wasn’t bad, and went away quickly. I thought maybe the shoestrings were too tight or something, so I adjusted the fit of the shoe and continued on.

By the end of the mile, I was hobbling to my car in defeat. Was it the new running socks with the arch support? The trail? What? I took off my shoe and saw a terrible sight: from the top of my arch all along my heel was severely swollen on the right foot, and moderately swollen on the left. In both feet, veins stood out prominently, along with dark spots that looked like bruises. Both ankles were beginning to swell a bit. I tried to soldier on a little longer, but it was evident the slightly ill fit I felt at the beginning of the run was the harbinger of a bad run, with injury.

I immediately drove to Wal-mart to be a cold compress and harlequins (both a necessity in such a case). I elevated the worst foot (the right) and iced it down. After Mr. P. came over and confirmed this was a real foot injury (and not a head injury ;-)), I was even more dejected. Seriously, who gets hurt going less than a half mile in shoes they were just fitted for the day before?! Me, aka a really poor runner who doesn’t have good shoe instincts.

To be fair, I was iffy about the shoes from the beginning. I didn’t run on the treadmill either, because I was scared of my ill coordination landing me on my butt in a store with three other people full of workers. I didn’t take the shoes I DID run in that felt fine and didn’t rub.

Either I don’t know how to pick running shoes, I let someone talk me into shoes that didn’t suit, I twisted something on the trail (that I go to every other day), I have poor running form, or I just had an unlucky break. Either way, I’m hanging up my running shoes for a while. In fact, I’m taking these particular running shoes back, and I’m not buying more until I no longer have hobbit feet I can figure out why I really want to go through all of this. 

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