Pasadena claims another victim

Last year my friend Jana did the Pasadena Marathon (her first!) and Craig and I did the half-marathon. It was a wonderful time (well, except for it being postponed because of fires and then the freezing torrential rain on race day). The plan for this year was that all three of us would do the marathon, along with some other people in their running group.

Well, things aren't quite working out that way. For various reasons, several people from their running group dropped out of the race. Craig was having some foot problems so he decided to do the half-marathon instead, and I dropped down with him. Unfortunately, his foot problems continued to the point where his doctor basically laughed at him for wanting to do the race. Which stinks for him. So now I was signed up to do the half marathon without a partner. It was too late for me to start training to do the full marathon, so I was thinking I would run with Jana for the first 12 miles of her race, and then take the half-marathon shortcut exit. Yes, basically my plan was to save myself and let her suffer the rest of the 26.2 miles alone.

But then I started getting foot problems of my own. I saw a podiatrist who taped up my foot with some extra support and that helped a great deal. But now the tape is gone and my feet are hurting again. 

Doc says I need orthotics. Even with insurance, they will cost me several hundred dollars. I've been walking most of my life and it would be nice to be able to continue to walk without pain, but I'm not thrilled about spending a lot of money. I told the Doc "thanks, but no thanks... I can get some Dr. Scholl's inserts for fifty bucks and I'll be gellin'."

So I bought some money-back-guaranteed Dr. Scholl's inserts. And I be yellin'. Yeah, at times these things really hurt. It looks like I'll have to go with some custom orthotics, and I just hate the whole idea of them. I hate the thought that I can't simply put on a pair of shoes; I'll have to swap out my inserts and hope they get positioned correctly in the shoe. It just seems like a big pain.

I can't spend a day at the office without a lot of pain in my lower legs, let alone try to run 13 miles. So I am dropping out of the Pasadena race. Well not completely, I'll still be there to clap and cheer all those people with fully-functioning feet.