My 4-Year Battle with Plantar Fasciitis

It was a dark winter morning in 2022. I was late for work, sprinting across a plaza toward the bus stop. My whole body was stiff from the cold, but I just got up and ran — no warm-up, no stretching.

Then I felt it — a tearing sensation in my foot. Not a sound, but a feeling. Like electricity shooting up through my sole. It wasn't just my foot — my Achilles tendon felt like it was ripping apart too. I immediately started limping.

I was 31 years old — right at the transition from my twenties to thirties. But I still thought I was in my twenties. I thought I could just wake up and sprint without stretching. I didn't realize my body had changed.

I only understood the cause later. I'd been wearing Skechers memory foam shoes for about a year, even on rainy days. The wet memory foam was slowly breaking down — especially under the toes where the most weight is applied. The front padding was completely gone.

From the outside, they looked fine. I never paid attention to shoes, and since I rarely ran, I thought they were okay. I probably noticed the damage around October, but I didn't think much of it.

On top of that, I was sitting 8 to 10 hours a day. Sitting at work, then sitting on the couch or reading at home. The office chair didn't fit me — my heels were always lifted off the ground. My calves and Achilles tendons were contracted all day long.

Broken insoles + contracted calves + sudden sprinting without stretching. These three things combined that winter morning, and my foot tore apart.

If you have plantar fasciitis, you know this feeling. The first thought when you open your eyes in the morning is: 'How bad will it be today?'

Every morning, that first step sent electricity through my sole. The pain was excruciating. Some days I'd just sit on the edge of my bed for a long time, too afraid to take that first step.

Middle-of-the-night bathroom trips were the same. Half asleep, I'd take a step and the pain would jolt me wide awake.

At first, only my right foot hurt. But over time, the left foot started hurting too. I'm not sure why, but both feet ended up with plantar fasciitis.

Over 4 years, I tried so many things. Bottom line: almost none of them worked.

Right after it happened in 2022, I searched YouTube. Stretching was supposed to help, so I started exercising. I weighed about 72-73kg then.

I started with walking, but couldn't keep up 50-minute walks while working full time. So I started running on weekends. That's where I made a big mistake.

My memory of running in my twenties made me push the pace from day one. Without stretching. I couldn't accept that my body had changed. The result: on top of plantar fasciitis, I developed shin splints. After a month, my whole body was in pain and I gave up.

Then I tried squats. But without stretching first, my knees started hurting. I should have stretched my hips, thighs, and hip joints before squatting. But I didn't.

Injury → quit → feel better → try again → injury. I repeated this cycle until summer 2023. Shin splints took months to heal. Eventually, I gave up on exercise entirely.

In spring 2024, I started kickboxing. Being a serious sport, every session began with thorough stretching. Head to toe — the kind that makes you think your muscles might actually tear.

Something incredible happened. My right foot's plantar fasciitis healed. Completely. Zero pain — it was like having a normal person's foot again. And I was losing weight too.

But work got too busy and I had to quit kickboxing. After work, I only had three hours before bed, and going out with an exhausted body was just too much.

About three months after quitting — around October 2024 — the plantar fasciitis in my right foot came back. It was fine through summer, but without regular stretching, it returned.

"So this is it. I just have to live with this forever."

I resigned myself to it. I thought I could exercise on my own, but work left me zero time for that.

By then, I didn't just have plantar fasciitis. I also had wrist tendonitis and restless leg syndrome. I couldn't sleep properly. With pain everywhere, I was mentally exhausted.

I ended up getting sick leave. With a diagnosis and actual time to rest, something clicked. 'This is my chance to recover. Fix my wrist, fix my feet, lose weight — overhaul everything.'

I decided to change my shoes. I'd been searching YouTube every year, and this time New Balance 1080 and HOKA kept coming up. HOKA was too expensive, so I went with the New Balance 1080.

About $150 in Europe (prices vary by region). It was a stretch. But I thought: 'Let me invest in myself for once. I owe my feet an apology. I've been so hard on them.' So I bought them.

The first time I put them on — they were so comfortable. After years on the hard soles of Air Force 1s, the 1080s were different. Not arch-support, but a soft embrace around my whole foot. It felt like flying. I thought: 'With these, I can actually run and lose weight.'

Taping didn't work. Orthotics didn't work. Massage didn't work. I knew sleeping with my feet in a stretched position would help, but I had no way to do it.

Then something happened after a run. My feet were burning hot. My bed was against the wall, and I thought: 'Let me cool down my feet against the cold wall.' It felt great.

Here's the position — lie on your side facing the wall, and press your soles flat against it. Your feet naturally bend to 90 degrees, stretching the Achilles tendon, calves, and soles all at once. 'Wait, this is a stretch?' It was both cooling and stretching, so I fell asleep like that.

When I rolled over in my sleep, my feet would come off the wall. Each time I pressed them back, I felt that stinging pain — the same pain as morning first steps. It hurt, but I kept pressing my feet back against the wall and slept through it.

The next morning, I woke up — and it hurt less.

I was shocked. For the first week, it stung every time I pressed my feet to the wall. But every morning, the pain was less. The stinging at night was actually the healing process — the torn fascia was recovering while stretched. That's why first steps in the morning didn't hurt.

After a week, the pain dropped dramatically. This was around December 2025. For the first time in 4 years, I wasn't afraid of mornings.

In 2023-2024, I'd gone from 75kg to 68-70kg through walking. Fast walking for 50 minutes after meals, for about 6 months. The funny thing about plantar fasciitis is that only the first steps hurt — keep walking and you forget the pain is there. That's how I kept going.

But when winter came, I walked less, gained weight back, and the pain increased — maintaining the habit was the hardest part.

In February 2026, I started again — properly this time. I hadn't forgotten the shin splint lessons of 2023. This time, the sequence was different:

At first, one run left my whole body sore for a week. I hadn't run in so long. So I ran once a week. After two weeks, once every 5 days, then every 4. Now I run twice a week, with about 3 days of recovery between runs.

I changed my diet too. Mostly salads and protein, cutting carbs as much as possible. My body retains water immediately when I eat carbs.

Even just this much, I can feel my weight dropping and my body getting healthier. Right now, my biggest focus is not breaking the habit.

March 2026. I can run again. The wall stretching is working. I can feel my body recovering.

About a month ago, for the first time, I thought: "Wait — this might actually get better?"

I know it's possible because of kickboxing — my right foot fully healed then. Zero pain. A normal person's foot. Knowing that pushes me to keep managing it now.

There's still some pain. But I can feel the direction. Feeling the pain decrease — actually feeling it getting better — makes me genuinely happy.

The loneliest part of these 4 years was that nobody around me understood. When I said "my foot stings," most people had no idea what I meant.

That's fair. Just like I can't truly understand someone else's chronic pain, they can't understand mine. Only people who've experienced plantar fasciitis — or runners who've been injured — would get it.

2022, right after it happened, was the hardest. I thought: 'My feet are ruined.' Over time, I got used to it and just accepted it as my life.

That's why I built this site.

What I realized over 4 years is that the information is scattered everywhere. YouTube here, blogs there — nowhere that clearly tells you what shoes to wear, which stretches to do, what to avoid, all in one place.

I wanted to gather everything I've learned in one place, so people going through the same pain can find answers quickly. If I can reduce someone else's suffering. If I can help someone have happy feet again.

As my own pain decreased, I wanted to help others too. Running is booming these days, and plantar fasciitis cases are rising with it. More people are getting injured while running, and I hope my experience can help.