Cortisone shots a fix for my swollen ankle?

I’m trying not to stare at my ankle.

This morning, my doctor gave me a cortisone shot to try to quell the swelling and pain that’s been nagging my ankle since I twisted running it in Rock Creek Park back in December. He told me it would take two weeks to work. Still, I keep looking down, expecting it to have transformed somehow, like a green, knobby, growling Hulk hand for feet.

Nothing  momentous has happened yet. And when it does, it will likely (hopefully) be in the form of the swelling slowly going down rather than my foot swelling up and turning green. But a Hulk foot would be SO cool, huh?

The only bad news: no running until the weekend (Dr. Pereles, a marathon-runner himself, winced when he told me, and asked: “Can you do that, do you think?”). I wasn’t planning on tapering before the 10-mile Broad Street Run on Sunday, but I guess I am now, which could be a good thing.

I’m also disappointed I’ll miss two Pacers fun runs, as I missed last week’s runs while I was in Florida. I’m especially bummed to miss tonight’s route — an awesome-looking trail run through Rock Creek Park. Yes, I see the irony here.