Preparation. Underrated.

Tomorrow is THE day, the first big milestone in this adventure, the BAE half marathon. This week hasn't really gone the way I wanted it to. With a HUGE project due at work in a ridiculously short amount of time, I've spent several days working well into the night. On top of that I've had this nagging heel problem and yesterday it was almost unbearable.

I'm not one to take medication, I'll usually deal with something until it doesn't go away and have no choice but to take some pills. Last night was one of those times. For the past two weeks I have been dealing with what seems to be Plantar Fasciitis. Since it's an inflammation issue, icing seemed to be a viable cure for it, but after researching it a little more it looks like it takes about a year to get rid of it. Yep, that's right, a year. Most doctors recommend ice, an anti-inflammatory and some Ibuprofen for around nine months before any other treatment (steroid shots or surgery in the most severe cases) is considered. So given my aversion to taking pills, Amanda and I have several bottles of Naproxen lying around and last night I took one and let me tell you it was wonderful! In about ten minutes I had no pain in my heel and I could walk normally. Sweet relief. I have some that are lower dosage that I will take regularly, but the more potent ones, I'll save for big run days. I can deal with a little nagging pain, but trust me, this thing gets bad.

But enough whining about my injuries because I do have other things to share. First one is a news story I ran across yesterday and shared on facebook. Some of you may have seen it, but for those of you who aren't on my list of friends, I will share it here as well. I follow Lance Armstrong on Twitter and he tweets a lot of Livestrong stuff and yesterday he posted a story about a kid in high school who has a cancerous brain tumor and is playing in his last high school football game. I won't go into the entire story so you can read it for yourself.

Another thing I wanted to share is a shopping tip. There are lots of companies out there who do stuff to bring awareness and raise money for cancer research, treatment, etc. Of course you have to buy their product to do it, but they're doing their part I guess. First one is Yoplait yogurt. Amanda has been saving her Yoplait lids for breast cancer where for every lid you return, Yoplait donates $.10 to breast cancer research. You can find out how much money they have raised and more here.

Another one that I just found out about is a coffee company. I'm pretty sure the company I saw was Caribou. I bought this coffee because with every purchase of a bag, they will donate $.50 of your purchase to help treat and prevent cervical cancer in women in coffee growing communities around the world. Most of these communities are very low on resources and access to treatment. You can find out more about this organization at groundsforhealth.org.

I'll be back on Monday morning with a post about my first ever half marathon. If you're a runner and have tomorrow free, come on out to run with me. I'm not fast.