I feel like such a heel....

I've reached that dreaded milestone -- dealing with a running injury. Last night I had to cut short my planned long run when I felt a biting pain in the left heel area. After a few minutes of walking, I decided that it had subsided enough to where I could slowly jog straight for home.

I'm showing the signs of a budding case of Achilles tendinitis. The tender nodule is on the tendon a couple of inches above my heel. I can probably point to multiple factors at play here:

• Increasing mileage in preparation for the Angie's half
• Shortchanging myself on warmup/stretching time
• New shoes -- although they are the same model as my last pair

I was a little stressed and inconvenienced this week after having to replace a broken timing belt that disabled my car. I'd be extremely furious at myself if I let this situation with my Achilles progress to a ruptured tendon that would take me out long-term. So I'm going to be erring on the side of caution.

Since it's jumping/running that aggravates this condition, I even have this crazy idea of walking the upcoming race. It is Angie's Half Crazy! Half Marathon, after all....