X-Ray reveals...

I love this quote for so many reasons... And mainly now because, well, my foot is fractured... Last August I wrote about thinking my foot had a stress fracture, here, but after running on it for several months without further injury had summed it up to something else... Arthritis, said the chiropractor. Bone spur, said he physical therapist. Plantar fasciitis, said a fellow runner. Well with this Sunday finally being the CDA Marathon, I went to every doctor I could think of for a cortisone shot, even having co-workers help with trying to get this arranged, but to no avail. Finally, I contacted my primary care doctor, he said he would only do the shot if I would FINALLY get the x-ray... Ignorance could no longer be bliss... There you have it, he moment of truth... So yesterday afernoon, after spending the day working at home with a sick kid, went and got the x-ray. Today, got the call with the results, it is indeed a stress fracture. So no shot is going to help. Running will make it worse and could lead to a much worse break and healing takes 6-8 weeks of reducing the load, ie no running... Do I plan to stop running? No. Do I plan to skip the marathon this weekend? No. 

What am I going to do? No idea... I continue to run on this fracture and it continues to get worse and even causing more stress fractures in the foot. Eventually the foot bones break, and that is a year off of running. But the only treatment is rest... And right now, it is 19.5 weeks until the Portland Marathon. Right now I have eight other runs that I want to run before Portland... Not to mention a pretty significant desire to CrossFit again... 

Is it totally unrealistic to plan to race all the races and plan for Portland to be my last run and take 8 weeks then? Will my foot last that long? Is it worth the risk? Too many questions. Not enough answers...