A Thorny Issue

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Here’s the thing about running through the decades: The injuries pile up.

In the early years, it’s from being too ambitious and overtraining. In the latter years, it’s from being too ambitious and tripping. And with either age group, freak accidents seem to happen only after officially signing up for a race.

I’d no sooner accepted the online waiver and punched in my credit card data when I was felled by a wayward bougainvillea stalk. These beautiful plants (ours is the size and shape of a tree, but I think they are technically a shrub) need to be periodically trimmed, and sometimes the landscapers you hire don’t pick up every stalk. And these stalks have “prickers” – big ones, too. And one such thorn stuck in my foot after I stepped on it because I wasn’t paying close attention to my surroundings.

I didn’t think anything of it, other than “ouch.” I was wearing thin summer flats and the plant pierced the pleather and lodged into the outside of my left foot. I pulled it out, threw the stalk away and continued with my evening. The next day I woke to a very sore, swollen foot. It stayed that way for several days, and then the swelling shrank to the size of a hard pea but the puncture wound remained tender to the touch.

I stopped running to let it heal. Only it never quite did. I decided last week to get it checked out by my doctor since I have a beach race on the calendar this fall. She believes part of the thorn broke off in my foot. She also doesn’t believe a podiatrist will do exploratory surgery, so we’re going to apply a salicylic acid patch for several weeks and see if we can’t slough off skin layers and force out the offending object.

I certainly have plenty I can do off my feet between now and then, but it doesn’t bode well for race day, even one in the distance. I am happy I signed up for the 5k instead of the 10k. Running in sand is hard enough, running in sand with a piece of a plant embedded in your foot will be even harder. Especially if I don’t to any actual running before then.

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