On Sunday, I headed out with my group for our long run. I knew what I was getting into....the dreaded "hamburger run". We gave it the name during our last marathon training (I for Delaware, Amy for Boston, Doug for Vegas). The run is from Leesburg out to Waterford and back. It is basically all country roads that are uneven, rocky/gravel and it is quite the roller coaster. It is pretty much non-stop hills for the entire 17.5 miles. It gets to the point where even the downhills hurt. It's just that hard. One of the girls in our group said, "this is going to turn our legs into hamburger meat!" and the name was born.
Anyway, I've been dealing with (and by dealing with, I mean ignoring) an inflamed sciatica. It started about a year ago. The pain starts in my lower back but quickly travels to my hips. Sometimes only on one side but more often than not, to both. Last year, the pain was so bad in my right side that I was convinced I had a stress fracture. I went to an orthopedic surgeon who took 9 gazillion x-rays then gave me the news that it was my sciatica. He put me on a heavy duty anti-inflammatory which helped for about a month but then quickly returned. When the pain comes, it's really debilitating. It always, without fail, comes around the mile 15/16 mark. It's what killed my time at Marine Corps and I'm really worried that it's what it going to kill me in Boston.
The only thing that seems to help is rest. And rest is something that I just haven't done because Boston is really important and really, really (yikes!) close.
Anyway, back to the long run and my point (I'm pretty sure I had one). As expected, by mile 16, I was in quite a bit of pain. The hills, I've discovered, make it worse and this run was nothing but. Going down hill actually hurt worse - it was a jabbing pain in both hips and it was all I could do to just keep moving. And in all honesty, the only reason why I did keep moving was because I knew for sure I'd get lost if I didn't stick with the group.
After the run, I had to sit on one cheek the entire way home. Sitting 'normal' sent sharp pains through my right hip. The left was hurting too but not as horribly as the right. I hobbled in my house, got in the shower and finally, away from the group and my family, I broke down and cried. All I need my body to do is to get through Boston. I want to be able to run it and run it happily. I don't need a PR, I don't care if it takes me longer than it took me to finish Marine Corps, I just want to enjoy the experience that I worked so hard for. That's all. Then I'll hang up my running shoes for a while to allow some sort of healing to happen and after that, I'll stick to short distances. These are the promises I keep making but my body apparently doesn't care. It's determined to make my Boston experience miserable.
Sunday night, I decided to stop everything other than the running. No more Body Pump, Body Combat, or step classes. Just run. I'm hoping that it will help at least a little.
2 comments:
Hey Renae,
I totally, totally feel your pain - the sciatica is nasty stuff. I went so far as to have spinal injections and all kinds of other stuff, months of PT, etc. What ultimately helped was deep tissue massage. For me...the pain is just like you said, low back, into your butt, and then down the legs. Debilitatting. For me...and what the massage dude found was that the muscles in my butt were so tight/tense (start the jokes now about being a tightass!) that it was really putting pressure on the nerve bundle that is deep in your glutes and at the back of your pelvis. A couple painful but productive deep tissue massage sessions, and the world is a much happier place for me. Literally, no more low back pain, and I can feel it when it starts to tighten back up and it's time to see the massage dude again. Honestly, call around and find a good sports/deep tissue massage place and make an appointment!!! Boston and your butt will thank me! :-) Heidi
So I went to get some new shoes and got into a conversation about my sciatica to the woman working there. She said basically what you did - deep tissue massage. She gave me the card of they guy she goes to and just said, "Be prepared to cry." Awesome. And too funny.....my husband loves to call me a tightass for that same reason!
Post a Comment