It’s been about a month since race day as I write these words and that heel is still bothering me—enough that I’ve been avoiding really long runs and consecutive day training.

Plan A should have been to rest it completely.

But here’s the reality of minor injury for a recreational runner: you push it down to a secondary concern. You try to run through it. You take a painkiller and keep going because missing a run is bigger than a training hit, it’s a social hit and a threat to the habits and patterns that keep you doing this sport of your own fragile motivation.

To bench yourself for a month is to lose enough fitness to fall behind the group.

To rest for too long is to get comfortable skipping run club or passing on Sunday meet ups.

Injuries like a little bit of a low grade pain creep up through sympathetic nerves and tingle your pride as much as your Achilles. 

I borked a race because I ran on a sketchy heel, and weeks later that heel is still nagging me to sit out: but I’m not sure if its asking me to sit out for a month—or six. And that’s the problem. Because as a mid-aged recreational runner, it’s hard not to ponder if the next bench will be permanent.

So you keep running, despite the nagging low-grade ache, the occasional tingle, or a sore muscle that can be soothed with some over the counter care. Like some heel, you push through, better or worse, against common sense, and hope it all pans out one more time.