Another 5K

Today was an Irish 5K in Somerville with close to 6000 runners. SO much fun and such amazing energy! The atmosphere was great. It took me just over 4 minutes to cross the start line from the gun, not that I heard it! But we had a blast.

After about a 1/2 mile I started to feel my lower back flare up but I wanted to run through it. After 2 miles I could REALLY feel it. Otherwise I felt great. I was doing a slow and steady pace, not really pushing myself, but just going along and having fun.

Unfortunately, since the race ended along a narrow-ish bike path, I had to walk a good 30 seconds to get to the finish line. I saw the big "FINISH" sign and pushed it. Then I hit a giant wall of people and there was no where to go but walk SLOWLY towards the finish line.

I'm pretty bummed about that. I had a personal best in my chip time by about 2 minutes and that even with walking across the finish. I would have loved to have seen how I could have done without that ending. Next time, next race, I'll see! I think it is only in a few weeks anyway.

But as soon as I finished the race, my back really started to hurt. I had some Advil with me and took it right away. I'm pretty sure that I need more or even something stronger. I'm thinking of calling my doctor tomorrow. Tuesday will be 2 full weeks of this. And it first started during the 1/2 marathon. I just want to make sure it isn't anything worse.

I was having trouble walking today after the race. We went to a bar up the street where I stood the whole time. I tried to move around and to keep stretching my back but by the time we left and went to cross the street for the T, I was limping again.

As soon as I got home I put some ice on my back. It helped a little but then it really got so much worse. Now I am getting the shooting pains again if I move the wrong way... which right now seems to be any time I move. I'm afraid to get up right now!

The rest of me feels good. My IT bands are good. My calf muscles are great. Everything is ok. All I can feel is the pulsing in my lower back.

I am a little nervous about it. The pain is basically just under my tail bone on my right side. It shoots out towards my right hip and just pulsing around that entire area. At one point during the race I could feel it in my hamstring and that really got me nervous. I don't want this to be a nerve thing or a disc thing.

Plus, something else on my mind with this is that if I am this bad right now after 3.1 miles, how the hell am I going to handle 26.2? I can't walk standing straight up right now. I haven't been able to put on pants without holding on to something for the past 2 weeks. Going up and down stairs is painful. Sneezing in bed shoots through my lower back. I'm not sleeping through the night because if I move it hurts so much that I wake up.

This isn't good. The marathon is coming quick and my training has been suffering HUGE the past few weeks. If I can't walk without feeling pain in my back, running isn't fun at all! I can't get in the mileage I need for this and I'm really scared.

I'm meeting friends tomorrow night at the track now that the time changed and the snow is finally gone. We are supposed to get in a run there. I'm not sure what I'll be doing after today. I know I need to grab the ice again and rest all night. Tomorrow at work will be hard too. I just hope this starts getting better. I can't decide if this is something I should call the doctor for or not.