Running Injuries

     The evening of my last marathon (3 weeks ago) I pulled another injury.  I knew the second I felt the injury pull that this wasn't good and not like other injuries.
I got the injury from basically finishing a race and then hoping into a car for a 3 hour drive, things tightened up and when I went to take a few steps out of the car, OUCH and that was all it took.

I HATE running injuries, I am sure every runner does.  But right now I REALLY hate them.  Generally I am not someone who plans months out...  But I thought I would save myself some money and plan out my fall, so everything is booked and pre-paid (non-refundable from the race entry, airfare to the hotels...)

So far while working on this 50 states marathon goal I have had more injuries than I would have ever thought possible in a short 2 years time.  I have bruised the bone on my foot, fractured my foot, broke a toe, tendinitis in the back of both my ankles (brought on by a new pair of shoes, dumb mistake!)  Dealt with the torn cartilage in my knee that sometimes gets caught under my knee cap, bad hip bursitis that then also took on a little tendinitis in it.
And now....  I have pulled a hip flexor.
It's a sharp pain, and unlike lots of the other injuries it's not one I can run though.  The pain is too sharp and intense to run though it.  Not only that, if it keeps getting worse, it could put me out of running all together for 3 or more months.

The GOOD and the BAD news.
BAD news, I basically couldn't run for 3 weeks.
GOOD news, Dr. suggested I get back into running again as slow as the injury will allow.
BAD news, I got this injury because I didn't warm down and stretch enough after the race.
GOOD news, since the Dr. gave me specific stretches I have been able to run daily and in little to no pain.
BAD news, I have a marathon this weekend.

I have been having several good running days.  Generally a few days before a race I don't go out for a mid to long run 10-14 miles.  But tomorrow I am going to do just that.  I need to see if I am going to be in any pain, not only that but I need to do it on hilly course (since uphill hurts it worse than down.)  Because the marathon this weekend is a hilly course.
Depending on what happens tomorrow, I may or may not even attempt the race this weekend.
Mostly because I have 5 other marathons coming up over the next couple of months, so it would be better to miss 1 marathon than all 6.
Of course if I do try to run this weekend, I am going to have to force myself to listen to my body extremely close!  And as much as I will HATE it, if I have any pain at all, I am going to have to stop and have my first ever DNF....  Just the thought of that annoys me!

So tomorrow will tell, if it goes well a week from today I will have another marathon post of a state accomplished.  If tomorrow goes bad, well I should have some beautiful pictures of a trip that I took:)
As for all the IF's on running this Saturday, well I guess that is all going to be TBD...