injured two weeks before a half marathon!

[snch]

Heyyy,

Ive been running since the beginning of year and I’ve completed a few 10kms-15km as well as a half marathon in July.

Im doing the great north run in 2 weeks and my hip is quite painful. I done 9km on Tuesday and I’ve rested the rest of the week so far. Im hoping my hip will be ok for the day and I can get out and do some runs shorter runs beforehand.

Any advice appreciated 😊

Can you get to see a physio? I’ve found them really helpful in negotiating what is feasible and sensible in the run up to a race - in other words whether there’s any benefit in eg you trying to run between now and then, or just rest until then and patch you up as best they can to get round.

It also depends a bit on what you want to achieve with the GNR - will you be happy just to do it, or will you be disappointed if you don’t hit a certain time? And is this part of a larger plan, or a one-off so you don’t mind living with a longer rehab period after?

Is it the outside of your hip? If so that’s your IT band. Get thee to a physio, they’ll stretch it out for you and teach you some stretches to do- should get you round, might be a bit painful but doesn’t cause damage.

I’ll see if I can get to one in my area. I reckon I can push through on the day and I’ve done enough training on the lead up. I was really hoping for a sub 2. The last one was 2:08 but we’ll see. Thanks for your reply 🥰

It’s like in my hip and groin area. It hurts after a walk so god knows what it’ll be like after a half marathon. I did some stretches this morning and it did seem to ease it off a bit.

It’s probably an overload issue. In other words, your hip and/or glutes aren’t strong enough for the amount of load you’ve been doing in training. It sounds like you’ve ramped up quite quickly if you only started this year.

The advice above about considering this event vs keeping running in the short-medium term is good, though a physio should be able to help with a risk assessment.

Possibly bursitis, if so that responds to rest.

10 years ago I ran the Great Eastern injured. I haven’t been able to run since and miss it very much.
Do get a thorough assessment. Do consider that running the GN might leave you worse off in more pain, longer recovery time or unable to return.
Good luck!

Never ran a half marathon, but have plenty of experience from road cycling, martial arts and powerlifting stretching back over 20 years.

Every time I've pushed on through injury or illness because of an upcoming event, or the sunk cost fallacy of not wanting to take time out and stall/slip backwards, I've paid for the momentary 'gain' over a much longer period.

Yes, it sucks to miss a prestige event you've hard trained for, is it the last chance you will get to run it?

Only you can be the ultimate gauge of this, however, a good indicator would be how quickly you return to pain-free full range of motion after light stretching, REST protocol and NSAIDs.

Oh and don't go to a chiro!

I ran a half-marathon with a knee injury and was out for months afterwards. I would never do that again. Now, I stop running and rest for a week or do if anything feels off.

Well, it's taper time anyway, so if it's nothing major then it's not the worst time to have a niggle. Do you think it's injured or just niggling away (that's not very scientific, but you know what I mean).
Any running you do between now and the race isn't going to improve your performance, it's about staying well, resting and ticking over.
If it were me then I wouldn't attempt any running at all for a week. Give whatever it is time to recover.
As PP have said, if you can find out what the problem is then you'll know what the best treatment/stretches are.
Discomfort is OK (not ideal) but pain is not.

Oh and really well done on getting to half marathon distance in less than a year. That’s quite an achievement.

I'd be super careful with anterior hip and groin pain particularly as you are a relatively new runner. Both times I've had that it's been a stress fracture. Bursitis is normally lateral pain (on the outside).

The good news is your training is done and you should be easing off now anyway. Rest now will help you on race day even if you weren't injured.

Whereabouts on your hip? Is there any swelling? Turmeric capsules helped a lot when I had hip bursitis.

Other than that ice and stretching help with most soft tissue injuries.

I probably wouldn't see a physio yet if it's just achy, especially if you've increased milage so your hips are entitlement to be tired!

Rest as much as possible until it feels better. There’s not much difference to be made in 2 weeks whether you train hard or not, so try not to worry. On the day go out and try and enjoy the race, soak up the atmosphere and just accept that it might not be a PB day. The exception to this is if you suspect it could be a stress fracture or stress reaction, if that’s the case you need to get a diagnosis and stay off it completely until you get medical advice. I hope you enjoy the GNR, it looks fantastic, I’d love to do it!