Sisters Trip to Eureka Springs Arkansas

With us all turning into grownups and stuff my sisters and I decided we should take a trip together and it basically came down to us only being able to agree on these past 3 days at the end of June here to make it happen this summer.  So Courtney flew in early Friday morning.  Gretchen and I picked her up from MCI then made our way to Warrensburg for Beth.  Since she has the nicer car we let her take over the driving duties for the 3ish hour trip to Eureka Springs, Arkansas.  We stayed at Matterhorn Towers.  Gretchen said it was the most beautiful place she had ever seen but she is 4. 

Eureka Springs is a super cute, super hilly town with quirky streets lots of art and shopping.  Fun place for just hanging out and doing some people watching.  With Gretchen in tow we didn't do a lot of shopping which was fine with me.   I mostly wanted to avoid the shops with lots of breakables.

Gretchen and Courtney enjoying the spread that Joyce put out for breakfast.  A continental complementary breakfast  had a nice assortment of fresh fruit some pastries, cheese and salami.  The only downfall was no half and half only powdered creamer.  I need real cream with my coffee.

After a stop at Mcdonnalds for coffee we headed over to Withrow Springs State Park for some hiking.  We covered the War Eagle Trail and Dogwood Trail for about a 3 mile hike.  Gretchen held up pretty well, only a short stint of on my back style travel towards the end of the hike.  The War Eagle Trial was listed as difficult, not something I would think most people would be comfortable taking a 4 year old on.  I thought she did well on it and the only other hikers we saw had kids Gretchen's age or younger so if you're the outdoorsy type you'd probably be fine with the kids.

The bat cave was closed, good thing cause it looked a little scary.

Top of a cliff.

Pitstop at Sonic for diet cherry lime aids.  I must do for Courtney every time she makes it back to the mid west.

On the way back to town we made a stop at Quigley's Castle,  the billboards along the route made it seem like a must see!  It was not so much castle as a rock house and grotto type garden but interesting nonetheless.

I tried to convince the group that we should get matching tats.  Gretchen was the only one on board with the idea.  Guess I know what we are doing for her 18th birthday.

Ya Let's Stab My Feet With Needles, That Sounds Fun

The needles were not that big and there wasn't blood squirting out.  This is just a picture of what it felt like.

Apparently I'm willing to do just about anything to get rid of the pain in my feet and back to running again.  Last week I decided to give dry needling a try.  I mean if it's supposed to work even better than just the foot rubbing thing why am I not doing it?  Well, it hurts and the thought of it really grosses me out.  He stabs 2 needles into each foot then swishes my muscles around with them, or something like that.  It does seem to be improving things even more than before though.  Overall my feet feel better especially at work where I'm on my feet all day.  I ran 4 days in the past week.  A 2 miler, 3miler, 4.5 miler and 2 miler.   The 4.5 was outside the rest was on the treadmill.  All the runs felt great while in them but after the 4.5er I had to go straight to work and it wasn't a good day for my feet.  They did feel better the next day so much so that I ran a 2 miler and felt fine after.  This is kinda the same pattern for the past 3 weeks.  The 2-3milers don't bother my feet but the longer distances do.  All of the 2-3 milers have been on the treadmill and the longer ones were outside.  It's easier to limit myself on the treadmill than outside.

Things seem to be improving overall but so so slowly that it is so so frustrating.  A month ago it hurt to even start running and my feet bothered me at work everyday so this is better. 11.5 miles of running in a week is better than 0 but it's so far from where I want to be.  I have another appointment today to have needles stabbed into my feet and I'm mostly dreading it.  Ugh. 

Running Again

Gretchen and I drew a picture of how happy we are running.  Everything is flowers and butterflies.

I think I know why you're having foot pain Kristen, your running form looks terrible.

I went 7 weeks of basically no running, when I did run after I'd be "nope shouldn't have done that."  Four weeks in  I saw a doctor.  She gave me  prescription strength ibuprofen and said ya don't run.  Clearly not acceptable.  So on week 7 I went and saw a chiropractor that another runner recommended.  Then like magic my feet started feeling better.  Like f***ing magic!  My first visit was a week ago.  Over the next few days my foot pain while not gone was greatly reduced while on my feet all day waiting tables and I ran 3 days spacing them out.  The pain and tightness I felt after running was way more tolerable.  My 2nd visit was 2 days ago.  Then yesterday I ran 5 miles then after zero pain in my right foot, ZERO.  Still felt it in my left foot but not horrible.  

I put off seeing a chiropractor since my insurance doesn't cover it and despite several people telling me to see one I didn't think it would help.  I saw Dr. Cotter at Active Health Solutions: Chiropractic and Rehab.  I picked him because he was recommended by another runner and a bit cheaper than another guy that was recommended to me.  He dropped the fee for the initial consultation for being a Tail Nerd so that was cool.  Now paying per visit which is totally worth it since it seems to be working.    He basically just rubs this piece of hard plastic into my foot so hard I want to cry then a few adjustment things at my ankle joints, hips and lower back. Magic!