Hang Up the Running Shoes?

My morning run today has left me pondering whether it's time to hang up the running shoes until after Mallory arrives. I am so incredibly sore today that I'm having trouble walking and I know it's because of my run. My back hurts, my hips hurt, and my sciatic nerve keeps stopping me in my tracks when it decides to flare up. Normally my mantra has always been "no pain, no gain" because when I'm training for races I'm always in some sort of pain. But this pain is much different. There is also a part of me that is thinking if I continue to push my body I could possibly injure myself and then be out for much longer than if I were to just stop now. But here's my dilemma; I hate giving up running. Like really, really hate giving it up.

For the first three months of my pregnancy I didn't run because I was too busy throwing up and being miserable from morning sickness. I also hadn't yet talked to my doctor about her thoughts of running while pregnant and since I previously had a miscarriage I was somewhat hesitant to take any chances. At the 12 week ultrasound my doctor saw in my chart that I was a runner and asked if I was still doing so. I told her no and gave her my explanation of why. She said that as soon as I started feeling better she wanted me to get back into it. Obviously she didn't want me training anymore but she definitely was an advocate for me continuing my running routine. I was so excited that she was on my side and got back into my running shoes immediately. I haven't looked back since and have been so proud of myself for keeping it up. It's helped me to not only feel really good throughout this pregnancy, but also keep the weight gain very manageable by having not gained more than 25 lbs thus far.

My original goal that I told myself was that I would run only as far and for as long as my body would physically allow me. I had to change my mindset; now I needed to listen to my body and when I felt pain, I needed to stop no matter what. The safety of my daughter was much more important than making sure I finished a certain distance. Luckily running has been fairly easy and pain-free up until this point and the only thing that I've had to limit myself on was distance. Because of that I set another goal for myself: I would run up until my doctor told me to knock it off. Well, that still hasn't happened and I make sure to ask each time I go in for my check-ups if it's okay that I'm still running. Now that I've been getting so sore from running there's a small part of me that is hoping when I ask that question the doctor will say it's time to switch to power walking, but no such words have been communicated. So the decision to hang up the running shoes is falling on my own shoulders and I don't like it. I'm too prideful to give up when I know that I'm capable of continuing to run. Maybe I'll give it one more try to see if I'm as sore as I am today and then I'll make a decision...maybe...