It's Been a Long Time

Blogging about running is all unicorns and rainbows when training/running is going well. I haven't seen a rainbow in a long time. I finished another half marathon on September 25th. It was grueling. I ran very little the couple of weeks before that race, trying to rest my left hip/leg. I felt good on race day, ran the first 2 miles with the sub-2 pacer, and then the pain in my hip started. I slowed my pace at first. When that didn't help, I took a very short walk break every half mile. By mile 6 or so, those walk breaks weren't very short anymore. By mile 9 I was walking my half marathon. The pain was excruciating and I wanted badly for somebody to ask me if I needed a ride back to the finish line. I might have accepted. I talked to friends as they passed me. I watched every pace group except the 3:00 pass by. I'd try to pick it up and run slowly, but it hurt so much. My overwhelming thought was that I had a stress fracture (I read too many blogs) and running was doing more damage. It wasn't worth it, and my time was already in the toilet, so I just walked. And walked. And walked. It takes a long time to walk that many miles. Jake ran the 10k (and PR'd!!!), so he was at the race. As my friends finished the half, they told him I was struggling. He ran back out on the course and walked the last mile in with me. I did suck it up and run across the finish line. It's incredibly frustrating that I ran my first half marathon so much better than the next two. Immediately after the race I went into work for an x-ray of my hip. No fractures showed up on the x-ray and the doctor diagnosed me with bursitis. I've been taking ibuprofen and using ice. The pain lessens but never goes away. I try to run, and it hurts again. It's kind of strange because I have pain in my groin when I'm running, but after I run it's the pain in the side of my hip that's really bad.

I've had this pain for about a month, so I made an ortho appointment. I saw the doctor yesterday and I really liked him and agreed with his treatment plan. I was so worried that a doctor would tell me to simply quit running- like it's just my cardio exercise of choice and I can just as easily hop on something with less impact like an elliptical machine. He's not a runner, but he's treated enough runners to understand us. :) He went through the basics like making sure I get fitted properly for shoes and replace them frequently enough. He examined my hip. He pressed on my left hip and I just about came unglued. OUCH! Apparently that's a raging case of bursitis. If that's my only problem, I'm supposed to take Advil 3 times a day, ice, and I can get a steroid shot in my hip the week before my half marathon in St. Louis. That feels so hardcore. Count me in. But... he's concerned that I have pain in the groin. That's where true hip joint pain is felt. Not good. So, I have an MRI at noon today to make sure I don't have a stress fracture. I'll go back to him on Tuesday to discuss results and settle on a treatment plan.