So I got this new foot...

And this thing ROCKS!

It's an Ossur Flex Foot, and it's part of my newest running leg--the third one that I've had since I decided that just walking wasn't gonna be good enough.

The first one was pretty crude, being little more than a curved piece of hi-strength fiberglass laminate bolted to the back of a regular fiberglass and plastic leg sleeve. It wasn't adjustable for height or camber or anything, but my prosthetist is good and he got it chose enough to perfect on the first try that eventually I was able to run the Army Ten-Miler with it.

It wasn't much-in fact, the sole was covered by a hard rubber that started life as an industrial floor tile, but that leg served me well until I went down for more leg surgery, after which it never fit right again. So a second one was made, this one little more than a clone of the first, the exception being that the laminate running blades were now starting to evolve as companies began putting some serious research and development into them.

This one was somewhat adjustable (but not much) and the running blade had a pad, a double-thickness for more energy return, and a real running surface on the bottom.

Sadly, I never really got this one working right. There was always a spot inside where I'd get pain during a run, and we were never able to solve that problem despite cutting out large sections of the hard plastic. But after a second bit of leg surgery, this one didn't fit right anymore either so it joined the first one in a box of cast-off legs in the basement.

Enter the third one. This one is cutting-edge technology. It's fully adjustable in all directions and for height and it has a removable/replaceable sole make by Nike. It's also made of a new material and it's easily half the weight of the last one. This thing is cool beyond description.

On Saturday, I took it out for a test run. Rock Creek Park in Washington DC closes off much of Beach Drive on the week-ends, restricting the road to pedestrians and bikes only. I happened to be down there, and the fall colors made for a nice run along the creek in the company of countless other fitness-minded folks. This was my first off-treadmill run in over a year, so I didn't push it too far. I kept it down to a mile and a half, and though I really wanted to run farther at the end of that run just because it felt so good, I knew from past experience to cut it there per the plan, and lemme tell you, today I'm glad that I did; I'm feeling it a bit from that run, but not really bad like I would be had I decided to run farther and over-do it. But the stiffness today is all in my other joints--the leg feels great. This running leg fits perfectly and there were no hot spots under it when I was finished, so I'm thinking that me and this leg are going to be great friends indeed. Heck, maybe next year, we'll do the Ten-Miler again, or even a half marathon. And one day, before I'm done...a whole marathon. I've just gotta.

A nice promotional video put out by the Ossur folks:

Sadly--but good for me and others--the advances in technology on these legs over the last decade has been greater than at any other time in the history of prosthetics, and it's all courtesy military spending due to the large numbers of amputees coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan. Most of what I use today on all of my legs wouldn't even exist but for that.