Bad news. The marathon ninja has been diagnosed with a stress reaction to the left femoral neck due to overuse (running too much, too soon).

(Note that is not my pelvis - just an example of where the femoral neck is)

The long version of the story…
Following my last long run two Saturdays ago (3/25) I noticed some soreness in my left hip. The next day (3/26) the soreness was more pronounced and I was walking around with a slight limp. My leg / hip felt better that Monday (3/27) which was a rest day and better still on Tuesday (3/28). Since I thought the soreness was gone altogether that Tuesday I went for a 7 mile run and felt great during and after.

Then I woke up on Wednesday (3/29) in some real pain with a moderate limp. Over the course of the day the hip felt better but I could tell something was wrong so I went to a physical therapist a week ago (3/30) to get it looked at. The therapist thought I had hip bursitis but wanted me to see an orthopedist to be on the safe side. Last Sunday I ran the Shamrock Shuffle 8k (5 miles – 40:11) and again felt great during and after the race. This Monday I was in pain again and saw the doctor on Tuesday (4/4).

The doc took an x-ray and gave me an exam. He felt I either had a stress reaction or stress fracture of the left femoral neck caused by overuse (running too much too soon) so he prescribed an MRI. I had the MRI that night and scheduled another appointment with my doc this afternoon.

At my appointment yesterday (4/7) the doctor confirmed I have a stress reaction of the left femoral neck and told me I should not run the San Diego Rock 'n' Roll Marathon. He said I could walk the course but would almost certainly re-injure the leg if I did.

Going Forward...
I'm supposed to limit walking for the next 10 days - that means taking the bus rather than walking to the train each morning / night and taking cabs around where I would have walked before.

In the next three weeks I can do NO RUNNING at all and will do cross training like riding the stationary bike, my 'real' bike, swimming, and (non-weight bearing) lifting.
The elliptical machine is out because it will stress my leg too much. Unfortunately the only thing more boring than the elliptical is the stationary bike. I'll try to focus on swimming and lifting over the next few weeks.
In 3 weeks I go back to check in with the doctor and he thinks then I'll be able to start running again - only 3 or 4 miles at first but gradually building that up.
In 6 weeks my leg bone should be totally healed and I can start gradually adding more mileage to my training. The big problem is that will only be 2 weeks before the race.

Right now I plan to keep up the cardio via cross training and shoot for running 1/2 or slightly less of the race. As a matter of fact I’m going to a spinning class in an hour. It just isn't worth pushing it and going against doc's orders only to do severe damage to the bone during the race.

I'm very, very bummed out but hopefully I can salvage something and run at least a part of the race. The good news is we caught this early and it is a fairly short recovery period - some people with this injury are out months.

Also, I'm now planning on running the Chicago Marathon on October 22nd this year. I will be sure to follow the 10% rule and very gradually increase mileage during training so I don’t end up with another stress reaction.