I read somewhere ‘Training is a reward’ … but for me it wasn’t because training runs were becoming painful, and so had to scrap my runs for 2 months.. Seriously I did no running for last two months, and straight on into the San Jose Rock N Roll Half Marathon.

When I signed up for this race, I was aiming for my PR, this being a flat race course. But severe plantar fasciitis, has almost killed my running. It is one of the most common running injuries, and the one which needs complete rest. Hard to rest because it is on the foot.

Anyways, come the race day, I was thinking of taking the run easy for the first half, and then doing fartleks in between. My first half was pretty good , completing 7 miles in an hour, and I was running on pain :). It was beyond the 8th mile, where the killing started. Felt like my right heel was swelling up, and I was all the more making sure that my each foot strike was on the toe. This caused extreme pain in the calf muscles. Muscles were contracting, feet inside the shoe was contracting with pain. Never ever in my runs I have felt this extreme pain.

But rather than totally giving up, I thought to walk for a while. Rather than totally giving up, I walked most of the stretch between mile 11 and 12.

A little ahead mile 13, my team mates started pumping me, and as the adrenaline was gushing through for a strong

finish, I said, ‘FUCK’ the pain, ignore there is something going on in the right foot, and just RUN.

Do not know my official finish time yet, but this was the worst finish time ever- 2:10. SCRAP THIS!! BUT WILL REMEMBER THIS!!

1) Respect your body, if you don’t respect the wheels of your car, they are going to give up somewhere on the freeway.

2) Be mature in your decisions, a run in pain, will cost dearer to you than you think.

3) We all know the line ‘You are stronger than you think you are’ but be intelligent too- points 1&2.