Upcoming 1/2 Marathon and Sciatica (Help!)

Dandalf03

I am running my first 1/2 marathon  in 9 days.

Last Saturday, I ran my 12 miles and it was rough (I only had 4 hours of sleep and I was not well hydrated- my fault).  Anyway, I had to drag myself through the run and as a result I really inflamed/stretched my muscles.  I could barely walk when I got home. Sciatica has been the biggest issue- causing me to limp for a couple days because of pain in my left hip/leg.

Since Saturday I have been taking it easy, took off Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.  Biked yesterday.  Was feeling ok today.  Took a short walk after all the turkey then this evening went to run and my sciatica flared like crazy.  I stopped after 1/2 a mile because I am afraid of messing up my knees (because I am limping/running).

Any advice?  What should I do?  I am in the taper and it makes me nervous to take so much time off so close.  But I am afraid to injure myself.  Any suggestions??? 

As a side note, I have been taking Advil intermittently and  trying to stretch every day a little (maybe 5 minutes).  I did the "ice bath"/cold bath right after the run, but haven't iced since.

 

DonsJMUBride

I apologize that I'm not much help as I've not experienced that BUT I do get upper back pain sometimes and it was attributed to no stretching my hamstrings and hips enough.  When I do have back pain I used the foam roller or the stick.  GL on your race. 

blu-eyedwife

Unfortunately I don't have anything great to tell you.  A couple years back I started having pain that seemed to go away while I was running, but would bother me terribly later that day and any day I didn't run.  I ignored it because I was training for a half and just took advil before and did a shitton of stretching and foam rollering after.

After the half I went to the Dr. who sent me to PT - not only did I have sciatica, but I had some disc issues and had totally screwed up my SI joint.  In hindsight, I probably should have not kept going - which is the not great thing to tell you.

Since PT I've been really good about doing pilates/yoga to keep my core strong and leg stretched out.  And I switched over to Vibrams which I think helped, but again, at this stage of the game your best bet is probably to not run on it and do some good stretching and strengthening exercises.

Dandalf03

Thank you both for the support.  Have been taking it easy.  Still in pain.  Not sure if I will run the race or not (it's on Sunday).  Hoping I will know what  to do the day of.

*sigh* feeling stubborn because I trained so hard, but also being realistic.  Don't want to hurt myself any worse.  Hoping to get pregnant in the near future too... don't want to run my body down too much before that.

Thanks again!