Preston Park

Soon after I completed my early morning 11-mile run, I felt some discomfort in my right heel. No big deal, it was just my achilles being sore, I thought. I did a couple stretches and thought a day or two of rest would allow for sufficient recovery.

A couple days later, the heel still hurt. Every time I stood up and put weight on it, I felt surge of pain. The discomfort would slowly disappear after I walked on it for a bit, but overall, the heel did not feel good.

I took a couple more days off. In the meantime, the only exercise I did were some core exercises each morning and walks with Melanie.

After about a week, the heel started feeling better, so I decided it test it. I was anxious to continue my training. By this time, Jody, Melanie, and I were in western Pennsylvania visiting family. On July 3rd, Jody and I took Melanie to Preston Park in the Butler area simply because we did not know the lay of the land.

Preston Park is an interesting venue, to say the least. According to one website, "the park is a gift of nearly 100 acres from the late Jane and Dr. Frank Preston. Dr. Preston helped found the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy." When we pulled into the parking lot, had an eerie feeling to it. There was not another soul in the park and the previous night's heavy rain gave the wooded area a rain forest feel. There were some old conservatory buildings that had not appeared to be used in some time. I would not want to be here at night. The trails were muddy and the grass was completely saturated.

I started off on what I hoped to be a large loop trail. Less than 2 minutes into my run, I came to a muddy washout. I did my best to cross it via some tree trunks, but eventually slipped off and gave my shoes a nice new coating of mud. It did not take much longer for the rest of my clothes to be completely soaked from brushing up against all the wet branches and grass. At one point, I called Jody and said "This is stupid." My goal at that point was to make my way back to the car. Jody, was somewhere else in the park, pushing Melanie in a little umbrella stroller.

I did my best to follow the trails but eventually got turned around. After a few minutes of walking back and forth and staring at my Strava map, I found concrete and, soon thereafter, Jody. I was able to run a little bit more, but the the excitement of a morning run had since dissipated. I raised the white flag at the 3 mile mark and we drove back to my parent's house.

How did the heel respond to the hike? Not well. Similar to last time, soon after the run, it started to bother me again. I would sit down and after resting for a few minutes, the first couple of steps hurt like crazy. For the rest of the week, I limped around the house. I would not run again for over two weeks.