Nerves

Confession: I'm nervous for this weekend's half marathon in Eugene. I usually love half marathons, it's a good distance to work hard but to recover quickly. I have a big goal this year to run one in under 2 hours, and overall my speed work and training has been going well. Except for one big thing: this side cramp that won't quit bothering me.

For those who haven't heard me whine about this yet (which is likely no one because I whine about it a lot), I started having the issue last June at the Seattle RnR marathon. It comes back consistently, worse when it's warm outside and better when it's colder. When it flares up, I end up running through as much as I can but ultimately walking some of the race. After the race, it stays sore for days or even weeks depending on how severe it was. I'm nervous because my last half marathon in Oakland was pretty miserable and I just don't want to feel that bad again. It's one thing to be in pain because you are pushing hard and working for it, but it's another thing to be dealing with 'bad' pain like this. Even more, I have NO idea how I'll ever meet a time goal if I can't even push myself during a race. I'm discouraged.

I've been hoping to run well in Eugene, especially because I know lots of people going to the race and it'll be a big Oiselle team meet up. I also feel ready to go for the PR because I've been working hard during training. But I'm scared this race will turn out like the last couple, side cramped and way off my PR pace. I can't say I know how it'll turn out, but I'm trying to keep the negative thoughts away and to focus on how much fun the Eugene trip will be instead.

The one thing that gives me hope is how Physical Therapy has been going. Because the side cramp isn't the usual location and doesn't go away when I stop running, my doctor ran a bunch of tests and imaging to see if it was an organ. When they found nothing, they attributed the pain to muscle. A few weeks ago I started PT to figure out the cause and to (hopefully) make it go away for good.

PT suggests this is an intercostal muscle strain in my right side rib cage. Two of my ribs were super close together - basically no space - and that is radiating pain through the whole muscle and down into my center abdomen when my rib cage tries to expand (i.e. to work harder when running). I thought I was crazy saying it is worse with heat, but she said it really could be because of how the muscles and body react and expand in heat versus cold weather. She has been working on the tension via massage and exercises during PT sessions, and I'm doing additional daily exercises outside of sessions. Dare I say it's working...the ribs are more spaced out and the pain wasn't as bad this past weekend even though it was most definitely still there. Notably, the were again closer together after Sunday's side-cramped half marathon.

Hopefully PT will keep improving the issue and maybe, someday, I'll be able to go for the PR or even the sub-2 hour goal minus the side cramp. For now? I guess I keep doing those exercises, slow down when I have to, and hope for the best.