4000 is the number of miles I have been trying to reach on my Nike+ running app since my last 1/2 marathon in September of 2013. At that time I was only 250 miles away and was sure I would reach it by the end of 2013. And then plantar fascitis reared its ugly head and I have been battling that ever since. I had surgery a year ago in May to fix my right foot and being told that 95% of the time when you fix the worst foot, the other gets better on its own. Well as usual nurse curse reared its ugly head and by October (five months after surgery on my right foot, I was begging for it on my left.) Of course nothing is ever that simple. I had to have my foot injected and do stretching and blah blah blah before hand. So after about two months my foot still felt great so I started walking/running again and started a couch to 1/2 marathon training program. About two months into it and after a six-mile run the injection on my foot wore off and I was back to square one. I decided I was done with it, and went back to Dr. Anderson and said nothing has helped so fix it like my other. He does these surgeries on Fridays and since my birthday is on a Friday this year, I decided that would be the best gift I could give myself. To be able to enjoy my job without wanting to hack my foot off and to be able to get back outside and to my God time.

I had noticed on my Nike app that I was about 15 miles away from 4000. Since I am on a prescription anti-inflammatory, I decided I was going to meet my 4000 mile goal before surgery. My friend Theresa had started going to a personal trainer and walking every day so we found a 5K to do and I adjusted the walking schedule so I hit my mile goal by the end of the walk. Hopefully it doesn’t take me another year and a half to do 250 miles. I am hoping after 12 weeks, I can get back to walking three or four times a week. I would really like to see the next color which is yellow. I am currently in the black color which is really boring for a background. It’s all about the little things. A lot of my friends switched to Garmin because it is more accurate. However I am not a professional runner and this does the trick for what I need. Keep track of my distance and how many runs I have done. Plus I have fond memories because in the early days (July 2009 was when I started) when it was my iPod with a little thing I stuck on it with a thing it my shoe that tracked the distance. It’s hard to believe now I can use my iPhone with GPS tracking. And although it may not be total accurate, it’s close enough to keep me motivated to continue running and meeting distance goals.

Mole moral~No fancy gadgets required for this simple girl with a desire to spend time with God while out running and or walking!