No Sacramento Marathon for me this year: Did Not Start (DNS).

The short story is that I got what I think is an extensor tendinitis that sidelined me for most of November and I thought it was wise not to attempt running a marathon with such a gap in my training.

The long story is a bit more complicated. 3 weeks after my last post, I caught a cold and did not run for a week. Then, as I was resuming my training, I might have overdone it a bit running 24 miles over 2 days and I started filling a slight pinch on the top of my right foot. 2 days later, I put on a brand new pair of shoes for a short 5 mile run at tempo pace. The pinch kept on growing with the run to become a sharp pain by the end of the run.

After a couple days of slight latent tension in the foot, I did some research and self-diagnosed it as extensor tendinitis. I took as easy as possible and ran only short distances once a week to test the foot. By Thanksgiving week, I was able to run again but that was too late for Sacramento.

It is tricky to pinpoint the root cause of my injury. I think it is a combination of too much running too fast after being sick and the new shoes. I might have been able to run through it if not for these shoes.

No need to tell you those are going on ebay and I am now on the hunt for a new pair of shoes. In the mean time, my current pair still has 200 miles in so I am running exclusively in them.

I am now thinking of running the Napa Valley Marathon on March 6. It fits nicely in my schedule (KP San Francisco Half early February and Santa Cruz Half in April) and it gives me enough time to train correctly for it.