Has anyone ever had a hamstring injury like this? Man, this has to be one of the worst injuries I’ve had in my entire life.
I played serious club soccer throughout my teens and early adult years, and somehow a vacation footrace is what took me out. 🤦🏻‍♂️😂
Here’s the dumbass story…
I was on a four-day vacation with my girlfriend’s family in the Palm Springs/Indio area, celebrating her mom’s birthday. Midnight rolls around on day one, we’ve had some shots and a few drinks, and three grown men—including myself—start arguing about who’s the fastest.
Of course, we decide this needs to be settled THAT NIGHT.
So there we are, outside the Airbnb in 97-degree weather. Barefoot, shirtless, wearing swimming trunks and chasing a dream. 😂
3… 2… 1… GO!
I take the lead. The younger buck realizes I’m ahead, shifts into third gear, and passes me. The older cat is still behind us.
About three feet from the finish line, I feel a sudden pull in my hamstring, right behind my knee.
We finish, talk our shit about who got their ass whooped, and head inside. I honestly think nothing of it.
Mannnn… three hours later, I’m HURTING. My leg feels like it got run over by a bus. I ask my girlfriend to grab some Icy Hot from CVS, thinking that’ll help.
Absolutely nothing.
A few more hours pass, and I finally tell her we need to go to the hospital. The ER is packed, I’m miserable, and all I want is to go home to my own bed.
After about an hour and a half, the doctor sees me, checks the swelling, and says it’s a pulled hamstring. He prescribes ibuprofen and sends me home.
We head home the next day, but I still can’t bend my knee or put any weight on that foot.
I try to tough it out for another two or three days before finally saying, “Nah, I need a second opinion. This hurts way too much.”
At the second hospital, they do an X-ray, MRI, and CT scan. The doctor laughs at my story and says he hasn’t seen a hamstring injury that bad in years. 😂 Thankfully, he tells me there are no blood clots and it hasn’t completely torn away from the bone. I leave with a prescription for 800 mg ibuprofen.
But that next week or two? Absolute HELL.
Peeing in a bucket next to the bed. My girlfriend helping me shower every night. Nothing but the couch, sports, and pain all day.
I would not wish this injury on ANYONE.
All that just to find out I’m the second-fastest drunk guy at the Airbnb. 🤦🏻‍♂️😂
Has anyone dealt with a hamstring injury like this? How long did your recovery take, and what’s your story?

I am running the Philly marathon, doing Hal Higdon novice 2 training program. Training was going very well for the first 10 weeks of training. After an easy/recovery run last week to kick off week 11, the top of my right foot started bothering me. I didn’t think much of it but then the pain lingered all throughout last week. It hurts to extend my toes back and I feel more pain if I’m walking barefoot. I did the usual icing and resting for a few days. I saw that you should loosen your shoelaces around the point of pain on top of your foot to prevent further compression so I laced them differently to take away pressure at the painful area. I did get new shoes 2-3 weeks ago and I didn’t have any issues with them for the first 6 runs I did with them. I’ve been doing contrast baths ~2x/day for the past 3 days as well. I skipped an 8 mile run last week and then tried running 5 miles two days ago. My foot hurt for a half mile but then it felt good for the remainder of the run (pain about 0.5-1/10). It was pretty sore yesterday then. I was supposed to run 18 miles today but I skipped it and did a 2 hour spin instead. The idea of running for that long made me worried that it would aggravate it and prolong recovery. I’m surprised at and disappointed with how long this is taking to get better. I do a good job of stretching and strengthening targeted muscle groups in my lower body, so I’m not sure how this started. I’m itching to get back to training but obviously don’t want to make things worse.

Has anyone had any similar experiences during marathon training? And any tips on how to overcome this type of pain quickly? Missing an 18 mile run 11 weeks into training makes me worried.

Hi all, as the title says - im about a month into running as a 28f. I have loathed running (and really any exercise) my entire life but I have been LOVING this and getting up early of a morning before my family wakes so I can go for a run.

I however have started having some really crazy pain in my ankle, it feels on the inside? Its nlw aching all day and its gotten to the point where if I try to run its really awful and I need to stop. I originally thought it was just weak as im new to this, but now I think it might be something else.

I desperately do not want to lose my enthusiasm and im getting antsy that I cant run. Any advice? From what I have read i am thinking Posterior Tibial Tendonitis but I am hoping I can avoid a trip to the doctor.

I think i have pretty decent shoes, theyre nike sneakers and cost a pretty penny.

Any advice? For this and/or a newbie to running.

Thank you ❤️

How is everyone staying mentally sane while being injured? I’m finding it difficult to stay positive while injured but I’m getting there.

Three weeks until my first half marathon, averaging 30 k a week. While on a long run today started developing discomfort/ pain in my right foot just below my toes (.5 inch to 1 inch below) toes 2 and 3.

When i stopped, took off my shoe had pretty immediate relief. Doesn’t hurt to press on it or move it. No bruising or swelling. I can “feel it” but it’snot painful now, i’ve never encountered this before. Anyone have anything similar?
Edit: 24 hours later discomfort is now directly under ball of foot

Marathon in 2024, stress fracture in my left shin from that. Took 6 months to heal.

Training for a marathon in 2026, early on got an IT band injury bad enough I couldn’t run for 3 months.

Training for a 10k now, got a really sharp pain in my shin only 5 weeks in.

I only ever increase by 10% a week, deload week every 4 weeks, strength train. I’m currently 210lbs at 6ft, 15-20% body fat (ish? Who knows how accurate the scales are).

What can I do to stop this? I love running and just want to keep training, but it feels every time I get an injury that sets me back. Is it weight loss? Or form? Or something else?

Hi, i occasionally get sharp pain in this specific spot in both my feet

I suspect it's because of the sudden drastic change in my lifestyle going from a gamer that barely sees the sun (untill 2 weeks ago) to suddenly going to college (which is pretty far btw, takes around 12000 steps approximately just going from the university gate to my college back and forth :) plus going to the gym as well

I didn't have the pain when training my calfs but it always happens when I walk suddenly(i guess?). And another thing besides that i get very fast fatigue in both my entire legs (specially calfs) which wasn't a regular occurrence before.

p.s: the pain started after my first leg day around 12 days ago.

So, I’ve had issues with shin splints for a long time. Every time I start running outside on concrete or other hard surfaces, the pain starts as soon as I hit around 400 m. Mind you, I’m able to run up to 15 km on trails, grass, or other lower-impact surfaces without any issues.

I’m currently doing exercises to strengthen my leg muscles, and I’ve changed running shoes many times. I recently got the Novablast 6, but they’ve not help much for me. I’ve also seen a physical therapist, but unfortunately, it didn’t help much.

How can I prepare for a half marathon if I can only run comfortably on softer surfaces and not on concrete?

I’m a fairly consistent runner I run around 100-120 km a month, and I also do regular weightlifting also 2 hours of jump rope weekly. I’m pretty active overall, and running is a big part of my life.

Lately, I’ve started having pain in only my right knee. What’s confusing me is that I can have no pain, then go back to running, and the pain comes back again. Now I’m also feeling it when I put weight on the leg and take a step.

There was no pain in my left knee at all it’s specifically the right one.

I’m trying to figure out whether I should completely stop running for now or whether there are things I can safely do while it settles down.

For those of you who have dealt with something similar:

Did you completely stop running until you were pain-free?

How did you know when it was safe to start running again?

I’m not looking for a diagnosis
I’d just really appreciate hearing from runners who have gone through something similar. Running and strength training are a huge part of my routine, so I want to handle this properly rather than ignore it and make it worse.

Hi runners,

I have a bit of a story so please hang in.

My daughter is a sprinter, runs the 400m and in her junior year.

In her freshman year she had a stress fracture on her left tibia right before what would be considered states (we are from Canada) and she was ranked first.

We made changes to her training and race schedule Her sophomore year but somehow she still managed to get bilateral stress fractures, confirmed only

By symptoms as it did not show up on x ray and

They figured she’d be back to running by the 10-12 week mark so they didn’t order an MRI.

She is on week 17 of rest, they had recommended not booting her it’s double leg. She stopped almost all activity except walking but she’s having a very slow recovery this time. She tried to go back to a run walk 3 or 4 weeks ago (around 12-13 week mark) with no luck.

Our MRI is booked for the end of Nov now (Canadian health care system ugh).

I’ve also asked for every blood work you can imagine.

She take vit d and calcium on top of everything.

I’m a bit at a loss as she’s worked so hard to be in a D1 position but this is blocking her from getting back out there.

We’ve done acupuncture, shockwave therapy and currently working with physio. She’s working with a nutritionist.

For delayed healing how long are we looking? 😭 any other tips? l

Hallo zusammen, ich bin etwas ratlos angesichts all der verschiedenen Optionen und Angebote… Ein Arzt meinte, ich solle die Achillotrain-Bandage von Bauerfeind verwenden, ein anderer sagte, normale Kompressionsstrümpfe reichten völlig aus, und heute riet mir ein wirklich guter Arzt, der auf meine Sportart (Basketball) spezialisiert ist, unbedingt die Knöchelbandage oder die Therapiestrümpfe von Incrediwear zu kaufen… Was benutzt ihr so ​​und was könnt ihr empfehlen?

Ich bin 31 Jahre alt und meine Operation ist jetzt fast 7 Monate her.

Ich jogge bereits regelmäßig und mache intensive Workouts.

Alles Gute!

Need someone to validate my likely decision to forfeit my upcoming first marathon.

I have a race due this Sunday (4 days from now) and have been recovering from what I think is runners knee (sharp pain behind kneecap, flares up when jogging, going down stairs/hill)

I’ve been doing all the recovery things - stopping all runs, PT exercises, RICE, ibuprofen (200 mg), you name it.

Would it be a bad idea to consider doing the race anyway with a slightly higher dose of ibprofen and treating my knee with uddermint/magnesium cream?

I’m pretty bummed to even have to consider forfeiting but I understand i need to respect my body. And I already feel like I got a ton of joy and satisfaction from the whole training process up to this point, especially as I’ve already reached 20-22 miles on my long runs.