I just had to post too, because I'm feeling the same way! I've been running for 5 years, myself, and never had problems till this year. In the summer, of all the dumb things I tripped and fell and bruised my patella and was on crutches for 2 weeks and forbidden to run for a month and a half. Got that resolved and even ran my marathon in October. In November I got sick and was out for two weeks. In December I jacked up my left foot (bruised sesamoids), which kept me out till the end of February. Last week I think I added mileage too quickly (I threw in a hike, which of course I didn't incorporate into my running mileage, but it must have been just enough along with the instability of being on trails) and now my foot is jacked up once again, this time with some kind of swelling on the outside around the 5th metatarsal (not a stress fracture, I think, but painful all the same). Looks like I'll be on the sidelines for another month. I was getting very depressed until I remembered that until I was 20, I had never run a step. I survived. Even if I couldn't run for a year, I would survive, and I'd come back for sure. So forget this business of "giving up" running forever - that's silly. When you have healed fully, you'll laugh at that - forever is a long time!
As you ramp up your mileage, remember that. Ramp up slowly and you'll be running for much longer than it takes to increase your miles in a sensible fashion. Ramp up too quickly and you're asking for chronic injury. Have you seen how quickly your miles add up at the 10% rate? Even if you did it at 5%, it wouldn't even take you 6 months to get up to more weekly mileage than most people ever do. Take care of your body and it will take care of you. I am learning this the hard way.
Like you, I've listened to how to deal w/ the injury and things to do to remedy it. But, me being the lame beginner, it just doesn't work. However, let's stop the pity party and give ourselves some credit for even trying the sport. Lets give ourselves time to heal. And, in the meantime when you see a fellow runner going past you on the street, continue to give them a smile and hope that they remain injury free (even if we don't).
