My trip to the doctor, or how I need to pour more money into running my marathon

Who says money can't fix anything? It turns out all I now need to fix my problem is custom-made orthotics for my shoes?

The good news is: still no bone injury. And now the bad news: "I can't promise you a pain-free run on September 24."

Basically it boils down to my fallen arches are so severe they caused spraining of my ankle and pain in my arch. The doctor prescribed me custom-made orthotics. While I would love to have custom-made inserts, I opted for the more affordable option of buying inserts that were already made, but custom "built" to fit in my shoes. (Built as in the physical therapist at the running medicine store put a stiff support under my arch after he really examined my feet.) Trust me, they were still costly, but way more reasonable for my budget. I actually feel taller in my shoes than I did before. It feels pretty good. Tomorrow, I'm going out for an 8-10 mile "recovery" run. (Recovery from what? Not running?) But that is what my schedule said. Then if all goes well, I'll return to longer runs next week with a 16 mile run. Under my newly modified schedule, the most I'll run before my marathon will probably only be 18 miles. But that's better than nothing.

So, in summary, the doctor said I could still run. He said it would still hurt. He said putting expensive inserts in my shoes would help my arches, but not necessarily the existing pain. He prescribed more Naproxen for the inflamation. He gave me stretching excersises to do at home with these rubber tubes, and he wants to see me on September 2.

I'll end this rambling with one moment that convinced me the doctor was A-OK. As he was leaving, I was still feeling a little uncertain that putting inserts in my shoe and doing stretches was really the answer so I said, "Dr. Cupp, I really want to run this marathon. It's really important to me." He said, "I know. I can see it in your eyes."