Pulling out of my first race is a pain in the ass!

This blog should be about how great the Sutton Park 10k was today.... but it''s not because I didn't go because I can't run.

Following on from last weeks Trailblazer when I got home I had a lie down and then couldn't actually move I was in so much pain. I couldn't get down the stairs without placing each foot on every step as couldn't shift  all my weight to my right side without it being total agony. This carried on until the Monday when I went to work which involves sitting down all day and again struggling to get up. Another problem being I had two flights of stairs to contend with to get to the ladies toilet, so I was left with no alternative but to use the disabled toilet (which the sink doesn't work in) and then wash my hands in the gents toilet obviously giving a very loud knock before entering!!

Thinking if I rest and do nothing for the week and ice my back etc  it will be ok for today and I could still do the race even if I walked some of it, so that's what I did. I carried on going to the gym only to use the jacuzzi and steam room, the jacuzzi seemed to help and by mid week the pain had eased of my back and was now a searing pain in my right buttock. I don't usually like self diagnoses as half the time I think I'm going to die but did google the symptoms I have and came to the conclusion I was suffering with Piriformis Syndrome.

 It all tied in with that and I found some stretches to do which hurt like hell doing them but seemed to ease the pain overall. By Thursday I was quite confident I could do the run and stupidly went to the gym, the pool looked so inviting that I slipped in and swam a couple of lengths which was excruciating so I promptly stopped and realised that it was probably one of the stupidest things I've done.  Looking back at the injury I actually think it happened whilst swimming but didn't really notice it until I tried running. I am not the strongest swimmer in the world I used to hate it as a kid and had pushed myself quite hard one night to go from 40 lengths to 50 (please note I had only started swimming two weeks prior).

Friday night was spent praying for a miracle for Sunday morning for me to wake up, bound out of bed and be able to run no problems, Saturday morning I woke up no better and really feeling very sorry for myself and mopey. I didn't want to forgo my run, I wanted to run, I wanted my medal add that on top of feeling like a caged animal all week and that's how I felt! So I (this will be the second most stupid thing I've done) got my running gear on and walked to the end of the road, which was painful but I thought maybe a run would fix the problem maybe my muscle just needs loosening up so I ran ...... for all of about 10 seconds then made a noise something like "arrgghhoooooooowwwweeee" and then stopped and then walked. Wow talk about a pain in the ass! Deciding I hadn't been outside all week I thought ok no running but I may as well walk the rest of the mile loop. Never before have I taken so long to do 1 mile... It took me just over 20 minutes!! every step was like someone prodding my buttock with a massive prodding thingy.

And that ladies and gentleman set me back to square one hhmmmm around last Sunday. Having now decided that sacrificing one race was enough I'm being really good and resting completely, icing my bum 3 times a day and taking anti inflammatory tablets which actually work that well I wish I'd popped 5 or 6 this morning and done the bloody race! I have got 3 weeks until my next race the Malvern Half Marathon and I really don't want to miss out again.

So in all its glory here is my only memento of the Sutton Park 10k that I didn't go to....  taaa daaaa.