and two more...

What an idiot I am! After taking two weeks off from this stupid sickness and my ill-fated run, I ran 16 miles on Sunday. A fellow marathoner (from Chicago) was in town and a mutual friend thought it would be a great idea for us to run together. That was a brilliant idea. Susie was so nice to chat with for the 2 1/2 hours we were out there. What wasn't a brilliant idea? Me deciding I could run 16 miles after almost 2 weeks of nothing. It did prove, that while I wasn't exactly on my schedule anymore (I was supposed to run 18 miles that day), I still have "it" and the time off didn't completely kill my training. However, it also hurt me.

It started with the knee pain I felt around mile 12. That's semi-normal for me, and I didn't really cringe when we finished. Ok, ice this baby up and stretch it out, and I'll be good. The next morning, I got up to pee and my freaking hip hurt like a mother! It was intense. So intense, I began visably limping the entire day. The next day at work, I asked people to come to my desk. It hurt too much to get up. I had never experienced hip pain before. It was probably overcompensating for my moronic knee.

Yesterday, the pain was too noticeable to ignore. I called the sports medicine center and was fortunate to score an appointment for today. So, the orthopedic surgeon said that I MAY have a stress fracture in my hip bone. Since I have pain when I walk, pain when I sleep and failed the fulcrum test (a procedure used to check for a stress fracture), it's a possibility. However, a small fracture won't normally show up on an x-ray (it didn't on mine) and there's another small chance of it showing up on an MRI. Basically, he left it up to me as to whether I wanted an MRI. I said no. I'm going to have some PT and incorporate other cardio into my routine, so that I can slightly cut back running until I (fingers crossed) feel relief and keep up with my miles. I'm definitely supposed to go back to the doctor if it gets worse. If not, I just have to follow up after the marathon. Overall, the orthopedic surgeon seemed sympathetic to the fact I want to actually run the race and made suggestions that would enable me to do it (as long as the pain doesn't get worse). So, the news wasn't bad, but I'm cautiously optimistic.