Every Race is an Adventure!

I tried to run with Kent this morning. The jog to the THS track was okay, but as soon as I tried to pick up the pace a little my hip started hurting pretty badly. I quit two miles into the run and started jogging home. At 2.5 miles I slowed to a walk. The hip hurt even walking. I think it's time for medical intervention.

I emailed Dr. Kimball. He did my shoulder surgery and I really liked him. He works with BYU athletes, including the football team (I actually saw him on the sidelines on TV a couple of games ago). He's agreed to evaluate and treat my hip. He treats athletes, emails his patients, and doesn't do hip replacement surgeries. Those are all good things. I plan to get an appointment as soon as possible.

I went to Dr. Kirt Kimball yesterday to have him evaluate the pain I've been feeling in my right hip. The good news is that after an examination and x-rays he says my hip is in good shape. He confirmed, as I suspected, that the cause of the pain is my shorter left leg and the resulting unevenness of my hips.

Background: In 9th grade (at age 14) I seriously injured my left knee playing youth football. I was clipped, taking a helmet to the outside of my left knee. It tore up the inside of my knee. My leg atrophied quite a lot as it healed. The doctor told me I needed to exercise it. Ironically, this is when I began running, which led to me lettering in track and cross country in high school.

A year or two after the injury I noticed the hem of the left leg of my pants kept wearing out quickly from dragging on the ground. When I asked my Mom to start hemming the left leg shorter than the right, she took me back to the orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Kezarian. He measured my legs using x-rays and determined that my left leg was indeed just over 1" shorter than my right leg. My dad made me a leather lift that I wore for a while, but over time I quit wearing a lift. I limped a little, but have not really had any problems for about 30 years.

I ran my first couple of marathons in 1982 at age 22 (PR was 2:52). After marrying Karen in 1984 and beginning our family (eventually six children), I gradually quit running. I started up again about 2002 (at age 42) and started running marathons again in 2004. In the past 6 years I've run thousands of miles, including 13 marathons and a bunch of shorter races. I remember one marathon a few years ago when my hip bothered me quite a bit, but the hip pain hasn't been chronic until this year, where it has gradually gotten worse throughout the year.

Dr. Kimball's diagnosis is that the adductor muscles surrounding my right hip are being seriously overworked. He compared it to my left leg stepping into a hole every step. The adductor muscles around my right hip have to work extra hard to step out of the hole. They are simply being overworked and getting exhausted.

So, I plan to do two things:

1) To treat the current inflammation I plan to take "therapeutic" doses of naproxen. I've only been taking ibuprofen or naproxen when the pain was bad. Dr. Kimball says for them to be effective anti-inflammatory drugs they need to be maintained at "therapeutic levels". He recommended about 500mg of naproxen twice a day for at least 4-5 days. He said the half-life of ibuprofen is so short you have to take it 4 times a day so, while it is an effective pain killer, it is not a very good anti-inflammatory.

2) To address the 1" leg length discrepancy, I plan to increase the height of the lift I wear in my left shoe to the maximum possible and still keep my shoe on. Dr. Kimball said that most people's legs are uneven. If I get within 1/4" or so, it should be good enough. I've run for a lot of years with about a 3/8" lift. If I can raise that an additional 1/4" to 3/8", it may be enough. For any more lift, I would have to look into an external lift on the sole of each pair of my shoes. I'm not even sure if that's possible on running shoes. I will cross that bridge later, if needed.

I was worried I might have a serious hip problem that could end my running career. I'm very relieved that does not appear to be the case. Now that I better understand the problem and have a plan I can move forward. The adventure goes on.

I ran the Lindon loop with Larry, Wayne and Kent this morning. It felt great to be out running with the guys again. The cool fall morning felt wonderful to me.

I've added about 3/8" to the lift in my left shoe and have been taking naproxen faithfully since my visit to Dr. Kimball on Wednesday. The pain in my right hip has not gone away, but it seems to be getting better. I made it through all six miles of the run without it getting bad like on Monday's run. Just knowing that the problem is overworked adductor muscles and not a bad hip joint, and having a plan to fix the long and short term problems, gives me hope and confidence.

After some research, I ordered G/W Clearly Adjustable Combination Lifts (http://gwheellift.com/combo.html) which can give me up to 18mm (0.7") of lift inside my shoe. Their product description states: "The Clearly Adjustable Combination Lift is the right choice for many client needs where leg length compensation is required of greater degree than is commonly done inside the shoe." That's me. Modifying all of my shoes with an external lift is simply not an option for me right now. It would be far too costly. My only concern is that the lift "requires considerable room inside the shoe". I may have to buy slightly larger shoes, or shoes with a taller toe box. But this will also affect my right foot which will not have the lift. I will have to find the right balance. Regardless, having high quality adjustable lifts will be a definite improvement over my homemade gel pad lifts, hopefully enough of an improvement to keep me running strong for another 20-30 years.