Ten days ago, I felt something “give” in my foot on the last quarter mile of a seven mile run. The next day, I tried a 1 mile jog with Jack and decided that I was done running for a while.

I was hoping the pain was in my head and/or it would go away in a day or two.

It didn’t.

Once again, I was faced with the same decision that I have been time and again: Do I go see a doctor who will put me through a whole battery of expensive tests just to tell me that I need to stop running for four to six weeks …. OR… do I save the $400-800 and stop running for four to six weeks on my own?

For some reason, I need permission from someone else to take a break… even when running hurts… and I’m willing to pay for it.

So yesterday I caved and went to my favorite orthopedic doctor at Ortho-Neuro. He’s seen me for a compound fracture of the fifth metatarsal (barefoot basketball), a stress fracture in the left ankle (running in old shoes) and a strained calf muscle (hypertraining last May).

I like him because he’s a sports doctor and pretends to understand my absurd obsession with running… while at the same time politely ignoring the fact that I am not a real athlete… just a mom who wants to be.

Here’s my fashionable new footwear:

At least it’s just a shoe this time… and he actually wants to see me back in two weeks instead of six. YES! I might make it to the half marathon on May 1 after all.