Plantar Fasciitis Relief

After running marathon and shorter distances for 20 years, I became interested in ultra’s in 2003. I had been relatively injury free my whole life and simply increased my weekly mileage. In the early part of 2007, I started noticing some heel pain, generally at the start of a run. It would go away during the run and I was training for a 100 mile run, so did not pay it a lot of attention.

After finishing the 100 at Umstead, my toes swelled for the next week. The heel pain was now more frequent. I continued to work through it and signed up for another 100 miler in Ohio in June. I kept telling myself if I can make it through the race, I’ll take some time off. The heel pain was much more bothersome, but I was able to finish the race. This time my toes and left ankle swelled considerably. I eased back on my mileage and started taking ibuprofen twice a day.

The pain seemed unpredictable. Often, it hurt worse after several days off. Walking after sitting or driving for long periods became difficult. I would have to limp around until my feet loosened up. Finally, in the first week of August, I decided to go see Dr. Sadri. I hobbled in, figuring that I would be told to stop running. I found the initial consultation to be quite thorough. He asked me several questions about my symptoms and training. He also had me do some various tests to check flexibility and watched how I walked.

After all this, he confidently stated that he could help me. My problem was a build up of scar tissue on the muscle fascia in my calves. He started that day using Graston Technique, followed by Active Release Technique and giving me a series of exercises to help stretch my calves and strengthen my ankles.

While the Graston was uncomfortable at times, the results were noticeable immediately! I walked out the door feeling better, both physically and mentally. Better yet, Dr. Sadri said I could continue with my training. Over the next 8 weeks, I continued treatments and the pain and swelling continued to go away. By November, my training mileage was enough to allow me to compete in 2 50k trail runs. I finished both races strong and have now entered another 100 mile race in Virginia during May 2008. Without the help of Dr. Sadri and his staff, I would have been sidelined for months. I found my plantar fasciitis relief and I recommend anyone that has a running related injury to stop in for a consultation.

Doug Cassiday
 Maysville, GA

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