Have a big running race this weekend...

Hi all, I'm new here! I can't even begin to express how happy I am to have found this forum after discovering Sarno's books last month. I've been suffering from TMS for years - my case is so classic that I suspected the pain was psychological even before I had even heard of TMS.

I am an avid runner who competes at a fairly high level in my local area. Running is my sanity, my therapy, my social life, etc. I probably make it to be more important than it is. But as a single parent with a stressful job and home life, I consider it to be my escape...the only thing I have that's truly for ME. I'm always terrified of losing the ability to run, which I worry would make me feel completely lost. I do other things to stay fit and injury-free like yoga, cycling and weight lifting, but running is truly my first love when it comes to not only sport but extracurricular activity.

Over the years I have had MANY strange injuries that haven't made much sense. I spend many runs "scanning" my body to make sure everything feels OK, and sure - I have aches and pains that I am able to blow off - but certain ones send me into a tailspin. Just as one small example, 3 years ago I began suffering from debilitating foot pain, which was diagnosed as plantar fasciitis. It was coincidentally during a very stressful time in my life. I woke up one day with pain in my heel, and could barely walk. For two weeks I stopped running, got Danskos, orthotics, a cortisone shot, iced, massaged, wore a night splint, etc. I was in constant pain and convinced that my running days were long gone. I made an appointment with a physical therapist and limped into his office on the first day. He examined me, confirmed the PF, and told me it was a minor case and that some easy running wouldn't do any damage. That was all I needed to improve my very depressed mood. I went home, ran 3 easy miles, felt fine during and after the run, and the PF was completely gone forever. I didn't understand it at the time - I thought the running had "cured" my PF. What I didn't know was that it wasn't the running, it was my mind. As soon as I knew my condition was benign the pain went away.

Things like this have happened many times over the years. But they seem to flare up to the extreme when I am stressed or upset about something, which is fairly often. Last fall, I volunteered to be a pace group leader in a local half-marathon, which means I am responsible for running a certain pace to help other runners meet their goals. I've never done this before and thought it would be fun since it's slower than my "race" pace. Well, now it's coming up this weekend. My training hasn't been ideal and I haven't gotten in as many miles as I'd hoped over the winter, and I'm convinced that I'm not in shape to do this (even though I know I am).

Two days ago, my "problem" calf (the one I've had several bouts of nebulous pain in over the years) started acting up. It doesn't really hurt, it just feels tight here and there, which comes and goes throughout the course of a run - obviously, if I had a real calf injury I would feel it constantly, I know this. It also feels tight on and off throughout the day, mostly when I'm thinking about it. I'm obsessing over this and worrying how I can possibly put it through 13 miles this weekend without doing long-term damage. Ugh.

Any helpful or reassuring advice from fellow athletes or runners would be amazing