Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Malfunction

I keep getting e-mails from my real-life friends asking me if I'm dead. No I'm not dead....I just don't have much to say.

Here's a story from a run last week, though, that y'all might find interesting and warning...there are bodily fluids involved.

I am 30 years old and I have the bladder of an 80 year old. I usually get up several times during the night to empty my bladder and the daytime can be ever worse. Usually my bladder is pretty quiet while running, but not while I'm running slowly. And since my coach almost exclusively only lets me run in zone 1, I've had to go to the bathroom A LOT while running.

Last Friday I set out to do my 17 mile run with 8 miles of it at race pace. My plan was to run from my house to the school, 8 miles around the track (yes, I need a Garmin!), and then run home. I got to the school all in zone one and two and then stopped into the bathroom. I then ran 2 miles at race pace, but the whole time I felt like I had to pee and it was really painful and burning. I went in to use the restroom again, but nothing came out. I tried to run again, but the pain was unbearable. I tried the restroom one more time and again, nothing happened. So, I started to run home, but I couldn't get past the pain. For most of the miles home, I walked. Throughout my shower and lunch the pain persisted and got worse. By the afternoon, I could barely sit and started to wonder if I should call the doctor. Here's the thing, though. :) I am friends with my doctor. I run with him on occasion. We are on a first-name basis. I was worried that if I was going to the doctor for pain "down there" he was going to become "more than my friend" and I was going to have to find a new doctor. :) So I self-diagnosed and came up with a urinary tract infection. I then took a nap.

When I woke up, 2 hours later, I had a huge urge to pee. And that I did. For like 5 minutes straight. And every since then, I have had no pain and no sudden urges to go to the bathroom. Coach is convinced it's a UTI; Dave and I think I passed a small kidney stone.

All I know is, I'm not sure I ever want to experience natural childbirth. :)

4 comments:

:) said...

I bet it was a kidney stone. I passed a LARGE one a couple of years ago and let's just say it wasn't pretty... Glad you are feeling better. :)

Are you gonna make that run up, or just let it go?

Meredith said...

Coach and I put that run back on the schedule for this weekend.

Michelle said...

That last line is too funny! Let's just say I've experienced natural childbirth twice, and will probably do it again some day, but I'm not sure I could ever run a marathon, let alone 10!!!!

Val said...

At least natural childbirth is "pain with a purpose"... it's not just pain. Hehe! glad you're feeling better!