aches & pains & podiatry

[tunes: #60, "love is all around" by the troggs. because it makes me think of "love actually." which resides very happily in my edited DVD collection.]

so about halfway thru my 1/2marty training, i began experiencing a little pain in the ol' knees. my sweet, knobby little knees had turned on me.

at first, it was just a post-running ache. then one saturday morning, i woke up and couldn't really walk effectively. limping = not okay.

so i spent the afternoon on frumpylumpyredcouch with an ice pack (okay, frozen peas) and a few episodes of Vaughn. I mean Alias.

knees = much better.

then a couple weeks later, i noticed that my right ankle was quite unhappy. i found myself hobbling about while setting up for a certain swanky new year's party and attempting to boogie to katy perry. hobbling = not okay.

one night at another party, a guy wanted to look at my feet. yes, he's a podiatry student. (let's imagine that he was hitting on me in his own way.) anyway, he told me i pronate ... aka stand on the insides of my feet. he even guessed exactly where my knees and ankle hurt without me telling him. someone give that kid a license and a white coat.

however, custom orthotics = expensive.

determined not to quit without pickling the beast (to quote a classic), i headed to walmart to scope out cheaper options. i "invested" in some dr. scholl's shoe inserts ... the $5 variety.

two months later: knees and ankle haven't hurt since, except for a bit after my very long runs. i'll take it.

it's funny to discover, more than 2 decades after first learning to stand/walk/run, that i've been doing it wrong this entire time.

thanks, dr. scholl's. now if you could only make my knobby little kneecaps more attractive. oh skeletal patellas.

p.s.
4 days.