I slowed to a walk, Bella panting happily by my ankles as she trotted alongside me for our nightly jog. I winced as my foot hit the path, a line of pain flaring up the muscles of my leg. After a few more steps it got bad enough that I had to hobble towards a park bench.

Bella trotted along happily, not overly concerned with my leg and foot pain as I collapsed onto the rough wooden seat. Had this been bothering me for a while? I wondered, as I worked my shoe off. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d gone for a run without some minor foot pain, but it had never been bad enough to sit me down, that was for sure.

A friend of mine had recommended I try compression socks for foot pain when I’d mentioned it to him, but I’d never gotten around to making the appointment with the podiatrist. Bella made a low whining noise – why were we still sitting, when we could be jogging?!

I laughed at her and took a deep breath. Looking up, I scoped out the distance to the car and saw that it was going to be quicker to complete our circuit of the park to get back to the car than it would be to just walk back the way we came. Bella’s tail wagged as she picked up on my plans, psychically.

‘Should have just bitten the bullet and found me one of those good podiatrists near Cheltenham,’ I grunted, wrapping my hand around the arm of the bench and pushing up. I tested my weight on the injured foot and found that it was bearable enough.

‘Come on, Bell,’ I jerked my head, and the little dog yapped in delight that we were finishing our walk. She trotted along nicely beside me – clearly hoping that I wouldn’t notice I wasn’t holding her lead.

‘Nice try,’ I chuckled, but decided she could have a few metres off it at least.