15 years ago I managed to completely bust one of the sesamoid bones in the ball of my left foot.
A combination of poor blood supply, immaturity and aspirations to dance professionally meant it never really healed – I felt like a ‘real dancer’ with my first injury and was just too young to understand the significance of it all.
And so began a period of constant foot strapping, popping anti-inflammatories and special u-shaped orthotics in my shoes. In 2005 I gave up on the dancing dream and until this year, my foot was settled (though I’ve never been able to wear high heels). Gym workouts, boxing classes and running short distances (around 5km) didn’t cause me any problems.
Late last year I decided I wanted to run a half marathon before I turn 30 and gradually, I started to run further and more frequently. My foot started to hurt again early this year, but it wasn’t until I was running eight or nine kilometres, up to three times per week that I realised I spent most of the time in pain and swearing that I decided to quit running and seek treatment.
In the past couple of years or I have run in some very cool cities such as San Diego and London as well as around the bays of Wellington and Auckland. I have worked out in gyms in Las Vegas and London as well as on board a cruise ship, and I can say I’ve taken a Zumba class in New York City.
For now though, all I can do is swim or sit on a bike which goes nowhere and it’s pretty damn frustrating.
Going swimming takes so much more effort than putting on your running shoes and heading out the door. You have to commute to the pool, deal with the first shock of cold water, battle up to five people sharing the same lane and then shower away from home and head back there in the cold with wet hair.
But if you can be bothered with all of the above there are some pretty good pools in Brighton, London, Wellington, Napier and Auckland.
The day I am able to run again can’t come soon enough.
