I’m less than a month out from my second 5k of the year, and I haven’t run in a week, when I had been running three to four times a week.

Why?

An old ankle injury from three years ago decided to pop up again.

I sprained my right ankle during my senior year of college walking down a flight of stairs holding a box. I was on my class’s council and we had a “Friday’s” event during the fall semester. I forget what the theme was but it was for two hours on a Friday night, and it was something we had to organize and put on. I was helping bring down some boxes from our advisor’s office and thought I was on the last step, and wasn’t. My ankle bent inward and it makes me cringe to think about it.

I stuck it out for about an hour at the event before I texted my roommate to come pick me up. My other roommates had the entire women’s lacrosse team over our apartment, so we had to find me some ice in the freezer and then get me up the stairs to my room. I went home the next day after calling me mom—whose first question was if I had been drinking, which I hadn’t—and went to the emergency room that night to make sure it was just a sprain. They gave me crutches to use for the week but I gave up after three days because my arms hurt.

I had began running before the sprain that semester and was on the sidelines for twoish weeks. I was excited when I got to start running again, even though at the time I could only run a mile.

That was the last time my ankle had bothered me, until last Tuesday. I went for my normal run at my old high school’s track, ran two miles, and went home. It wasn’t until we sat down for dinner that it started to bother me. The pain came and went and my mom found a pull on ace wrap that I used for my sprain.

I had to wear it to work and was icing it. I can walk on it and everything, but also working at the ice cream shop and being on my feet for the five hours shifts aren’t helping.

I haven’t run since last Tuesday, and it’s killing me inside.

I’m hoping to be better by the end of the week and can run at least once this week. I want to get in some runs before my 5k on September 15 but I don’t want to rush it because sprains/re-aggravated ankles are awful. My mom got me a fancy Velcro ankle brace that gives me a little more structure, and I plan on icing it at night.

Ugh, just get me back on the track and in my running sneakers.

How do you deal with running or exercise injuries?