Don't Call It A Comeback—Yet...
Since running the "A" Mountain Half Marathon in late October, 2019 (and probably some time before), I've had trouble with my left heel, with pain in the back of the heel near where the Achilles tendon attaches. At most, the pain was maybe a 1 on the 0-10 scale, perhaps sometimes a 2, but was present with basically every step in shoes (with the back of the shoe touching the heel). Every run, every walk (usually I walk the dogs at least once per day), completing the Boston Marathon in October of 2021—it wasn't bad, but it was always there. Even when, say mountain biking, if the foot was jostled against the back of the shoe, it hurt. In the first few months I tried cutting back on the running, switching to different shoes, icing, and so on—to no avail. During the pandemic, I swore that I'd go to see a podiatrist if it got bad—but it never got worse, it gradually got a little bit better (but definitely limited my mileage and made any kind of faster pace / intensity i...