Tomorrow (May 16th) is the Ogden Marathon and I have been looking forward to running it ever since I had to withdraw last year because of surgery (I can't understand why they thought I shouldn't run a marathon 3 days after a hysterectomy). My training was going well, I had two beautiful runs in the mountains last Friday and Saturday (I will post about them this weekend), everything was set for a nice marathon day.
Then, out of the blue, BLAM – I came up lame. I was walking through Target last Saturday and suddenly couldn't walk without limping on my right leg. I had a serious ache/pain hitting in the hamstring and buttocks area of the right leg. I made it home and iced the leg and took anti-inflammatories and just hoped it was from being out and about all day long.
Sunday afternoon I took my puppy for a walk, and felt the pain in the leg again. Now I was getting concerned. C'mon – less than a week until a marathon. I didn't need to have this on top of my DNF in March. This race was going to be my redemption.
Sunday night I did some serious pondering. I think the injury to the right leg possibly started a couple of weeks earlier when I felt something 'a little funny' in the front of the right hip. No pain – it just felt off. During my trail run on Friday night I caught a toe on a rock and did a nice faceplant – catching myself on my left elbow and hand and on the right knee and thigh. I ran another 3+ miles after that with no problems (other than my elbow dripping blood – but that is part of the fun). Saturday morning I went back and ran that same trail and another mile on top of that. I twisted my right ankle about a mile in and was able to shake it off after a few minutes and didn't have any other problems. However, as soon as the run ended – I had to sit for 2 hours outside in an uncomfortable chair for a boring Homeowner's Association Meeting.
Monday I started the desperate bid to get healthy enough to run the race. I found a new chiropractor in my area and spent time with him on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. He did a lot of aligning and some electro therapy/traction each day. Monday he said there was a lot of tightness in the sacroiliac area. Tuesday and Wednesday the pain seemed to focus in on the piroformis muscle. Monday night and Wednesday night I went to Leslie Peterson's house and got massage and mobility therapy. She too found that the piroformis was really inflamed (I about went through the roof when it was massaged).
Researching Piroformis Syndrome – it appears that the injury stems from that muscle. I will be working on continued stretching/icing/strengthening the muscles involved in this area to prevent further future injury.
My decision – my gut instinct tells me that I should not run the race tomorrow. It is really depressing to not be able to do this after all my training, but I have to go with my gut instinct and preserve my sanity (which is already questionable) by being able to workout without a major injury. Now I just have to sit back and listen to what a great marathon it is from my running buddies.
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