It appears that I may again have a stress fracture in my right tibia. Back in November after a long training run that involved pavement I felt familiar pain in the leg. It was very minor but with each week it became a little more painful. Things improved and I decided to go ahead and run Across the Years 72-hour run, but the leg bothered me much of the time and kept me worried. I had other issues and was disappointed that I “only” ran 163 miles, for 15th place out of about 70 runners. I recovered well, but the leg is still a bother, similar pain to what was felt in 2012 after Across the Years that year. But it is less severe this time, not deep bone pain, but surface pain that just won’t get better and seems to inflame the surrounding tissue and muscles. So, time to go back to the ortho specialist. On the bright side I can walk, usually without any pain, so I’m hopeful that I can at least hike steep hills. But if I try running, now the pain comes fast, not quite limping pain, but get close. So it is time to do other things again and take a break from running. At my age it is now a delicate balance between tough training and remaining injury-free.