Wondering if anyone can shed some light on shin splints vs. the beginning of a stress fracture.
I’ve done two 70.3’s in the last month and a half and am 3 weeks out of Marine Corp. Marathon and got a real bad pain just above my ankle on the inside of my leg on saturday during an 18 mile run. Last couple runs have noticed it and have chalked it up to minor shin splints. Nothing to major and went away with ice after each run. Saturday though it hurt start to finish. I know a true stress fracture is unbearable pain right away and you can hardly put any pressure on the leg, but I am curious if this is the start of one, as I have been resting and icing and can still feel it a little bit. It doesn’t hurt to walk though.
i was in a similar situation from you 6 months ago. i went to see a physio to and they didn’t think it was a stress fracture, but the pain persisted and i reluctantly went to see a doctor and the x-ray did show a stress fracture.
i understand the disappointment of potentially missing a race but in the big scheme of things, longevity in the sport is more important.
fwiw, not all stress fractures present with unbearable pain and if you are feeling worried go see a doctor.
many moons ago, I ran through some shin splint pain getting ready for a marathon and ended up with a stress fracture… it is absolutely
something to get checked out. Better an afternoon in the docs than a few months laid up.
Wondering if anyone can shed some light on shin splints vs. the beginning of a stress fracture.
I’ve done two 70.3’s in the last month and a half and am 3 weeks out of Marine Corp. Marathon and got a real bad pain just above my ankle on the inside of my leg on saturday during an 18 mile run. Last couple runs have noticed it and have chalked it up to minor shin splints. Nothing to major and went away with ice after each run. Saturday though it hurt start to finish. I know a true stress fracture is unbearable pain right away and you can hardly put any pressure on the leg, but I am curious if this is the start of one, as I have been resting and icing and can still feel it a little bit. It doesn’t hurt to walk though.
Am I just being paranoid?
Thanks for any and all info on the matter
Totally untrue. I just got over a tibial stress fracture. I ran on it for months before finally getting it diagnosed. I thought like you did…if I can run, it can’t be broken…nope. BTW, it felt EXACTLY as you describe. I would definitely get it checked out and as Rodney said, rule it out before moving on.
Yup, I’ll echo a few of the posts here. I did Columbus Marathon in '99, and for the next month I was plagued with shin pain. My sports doc kept thinking shin splints, as i didn’t “present” any of the general telltale signs of a tibial stress fracture, so I would rest a few days, then run, and it hurt but wasn’t debilitatating, and I repeated that pattern a few times. Then on New Years Day '00, I started a run, took about eight strides, it hurt excruciatingly, and that was that. The only thing that needed to be done after that was a confirming bone scan. Hell’s bells.
The worse news was that because I had done all those “trial” runs, I set back any recovery by several weeks; I think it was 11 or 12 weeks until I could run again.
The good news is that it got me out of just being a runner and into triathlon; you know, all that swimming and cycling to keep from going crazy. I’ve never looked back from that decision, and I refer to it as “my best bad injury”.
But I digress, and will just say to get as full of a check-out on this as you can. It has a good chance as not showing up on an xray (mine didn’t), and the “tuning fork” reverberation test didn’t put me through the ceiling, but the bone scan left no doubt. Looking up at the big-screen image of my shin…and watching all those white specks converge on the medial side, 1/3 up from the ankle…was equal parts arresting and depressing.
In the meantime, take the “rest” out of “arresting”, and apply it fully to yourself until you get some conclusive answers. Far better to lose three weeks now than three months later, and seeing as how you seem to have a pretty big Base, you can likely afford that time off without setting you back to the Stone Age. Best of luck with this!
Thank you everyone for the advice / stories. I am definitely going to try and checked out asap. Anyone know any good Orthopedists in the Boston area???