I have my first marathon on Feb 14 in Myrtle Beach. This past Sunday on my long run, at mile 18.48 (thanks to GARMIN), I experience intense right outside knee pain. Kinda like what folks describe as IT pain. I hobbled to the car. Tonight, I ran for the first time since then and at mile 7, I had to stop and walk my last mile. The pain was intense. I’ll spend more time on the foam roller and some IT routines. I highly doubt I’ll be able to run much. Should I aqua-jog? spin more? etc? what can I do so that I can complete the distance in a little more than 2 weeks.
since it is just 2 weeks to the race you do not need to run that much anymore. Do some aqua-jog and some spin classes - those are really intense, but they help a lot.
Again 99 % of your training is done, stay relaxed, make sure the injury is healed and enjoy the marathon…
Symptoms sound indicative of illiotibial band syndrome (ITBS). I fought a crippling case of ITBS for more than 8 months prior to last season. For some folks, it comes and goes - I was not one of them. It’s not an injury you want to ignore, even if it’s not bothering you on any given day. Use the foam roller or maybe even something a little more firm in order to break up the scar tissue along your IT band. The biggest factors in overcoming ITBS are (1) don’t push it - if it hurts, stop because it’s only compounding the damage, (2) loosen and strengthen your hip flexors + lower leg muscles, and (3) seek the help of qualified professionals. For point 3, I recommend seeing an orthopedist and/or PT for biomechanical analysis, a sneaker specialist to get the best foot support, and a sports masseuse or anyone that does deep tissue release. Once you get back on your feet, stretching, icing, compression, and recovery will do wonders for keeping you there.
First step would be to see a professional, a good sports PT would likely do as they can make a good assessment of what is going on and help you develop a strategy to get to the line healthy (inc aqua jog, cycling, brief ez runs, etc) know that the fitness is already there so the key will be to not to make it worse, keep your body moving in some fashion that doesn’t bother it, relax, heal the best you can and enjoy the marathon experience, know that it is very common to have something pop up when training for longer endurance events and most of the time things seem to work out fine in the end…good luck.
You should be tapering now anyway, and you can’t add fitness, so STOP running. Figure out what is causing the pain, is it IT or something else?
I’m guessing overuse led to your injury, so STOP USING IT!
I suspect Ice, Rest, stetching and foam, etc. is the remedy for it.
I’ve had knee issues 9 days out from a marathon. I immediately stopped, walked home, and didn’t run another step until race day, and all turned out well.
I had really bad IT band issues right before my first marathon. In my last longish run, around 12 miles, 2 weeks out, I had to walk the last couple of miles home. I gave it a couple of days, then went out for an 8 miler, my wife, who was running with me, had to go get the car. I did not run from that day until the race. I massaged and rolled my IT bands, took some pain killers, and iced them like crazy. On race day I was sore, but made it through. My goal was to finish, and I met that goal. It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t fast, but I did it.
I learned a lot from that experience. You need to find the cause. In my case it was really poorly structured training that put a load on my body I wasn’t ready for. Basically I haphazardly trained, and big surprise, it didn’t work out too well. I did complete the distance, which gave me confidence going into the training phase for my second race. I also learned that I needed a plan, and needed to stick to it. I also leaned I needed to work on my flexibility, and develop a consistent stretching routine. My second marathon went much better. I beat my goal time, and came close to my “in my wildest dreams” time.
Your first marathon is for most people a learning experience, and a lot of times the lessons start way before the start line.
I had the same symptoms about a week ago only after increasing my mileage after a little layoff. I am an avid foam roller already and foam rolled the crap out of the ITB morning, before workout, after workout and before bed. I was sore from all the rolling but cleared up and was back to running by the weekend. Give a foam roller a chance along with some good stretches or yoga and should clear up for you.
It’s not what you want to hear and I will get hammered for this, but . . . . don’t run the marathon. Ask yourself this question: Do I have triathlon goals this year? If so, running the marathon may not be that helpful and running it injured may scupper your whole triathlon season. What’s more important to you?