Track and Field Blogs - Yolanda Flamino

Unfortunately, I haven’t run the last four months. I irritated a sesamoid bone in the ball of my foot, which wreaked havoc on my tendons, and essentially prevented me from putting the necessary force on my foot required for running. My trusty and much appreciated podiatrist explained that it is a fairly uncommon injury, but one that has the potential to linger. Linger, it did. But, I received the green light to take off my walking boot two weeks ago with the instructions to walk around for a week and then if that felt okay to give running a go. This past Monday was my test run and, in keeping with the Christmas spirit, I figured it was going to be a pretty sweet present or a big lump of coal. I’ve been a pretty good girl all year and was hoping that Santa got the memo saying so.

The few times I did try to run in the past few months, it was very obvious if the injury still existed, as I could barely eek out two minutes before walking home. So, I figured I would know pretty quickly one way or another. While being hyper-sensitive to every foot strike, I counted it a milestone to get past two minutes. Twenty minutes later my hamstrings were wrecked, but my foot felt pretty good. I then was curious if it would flare up during the day or the following day, but it has felt pretty good. The only irritation is a bit of arch soreness, but I’m guessing that may be expected since I haven’t walked on it much, especially the last six weeks. I am still proceeding on a day-to-day basis, but it is an understatement that I am happy to be back doing what I enjoy doing: running.

It will undoubtedly take a considerable amount of time to get back into shape, but I am looking forward to the process. Happy New Year, Flotrackers.