The verdict is in!

I finally broke down and went to the doctor.  I tried running again yesterday morning and didn't make it down the street before I had shooting pain again.  I decided to go to an orthopedic surgeon and I am so glad I did.  I was in and out of the office in half an hour with my diagnosis and I am already feeling better.  The doctor took an x-ray, asked some questions, moved some muscles around and concluded that I have a strained abductor muscle.  I am supposed to hold off on running for 2 more weeks, which is not so great, and take anti-inflammatory medicine for the rest of the week.  For some crazy reason I thought Tylenol was anti-inflammatory and so when I first hurt myself, that is what I took.  I took some Advil yesterday and actually noticed considerable pain relief by the end of the day.  If I have not had a noticeable change in pain and ability to run without pain, I will go back to the doctor to get an MRI that will look for a possible stress fracture.  The doctor didn't think I had one, but he couldn't rule it out without an MRI and because of my build, I am more prone to stress fractures.  I am still planning on running the Warrior Dash in March as long as I am feeling better in the next 2 weeks.  I am going stir crazy not being able to run though, especially because of the beautiful weather we are having and the fact that it has been getting much lighter earlier in the morning.  I am definitely going to be adding in a lengthy warm up to my running routine.  I may even consider some yoga to help with it, but I find yoga hard to do because I don't have the patients for it!