elephant on my chest

Wouldn't I know it a week before my race I get some mysterious injury. 

I rarely every play basketball anymore even though it is probably my favorite sport to play.  I had a small class of students in my PE class last Friday so I took them into the gym to shoot some hoops.  Of course I love for my students to know I am better than they are at basketball so I decided to play a game of one on three against some boys.  I proceeded to destroy them and their pride over the course of a 10 minute game.  The next morning I woke up and it literally felt like I had an elephant sitting on my chest.  It hurt to sit up, bend over, and take a deep breath.  I didn't know what was wrong but at that point I was just glad it was not a heart attack.  I figured it was something from playing basketball and it would go away.

Almost a week later and I am still experiencing the same things, some days to a lesser extent, some days more.  I have gone on some easy runs and I have noticed it.  Since I could not get into the doctor until next week today I had the nurse at my school looked check me out.  She seems to think I strained the muscle on my sternum on my left side. 

My goal all along was to run a smart race, not go out too fast and run consistent 7:30 minute/miles.  While I still want to do all the above, running a smart race is the hardest simply because I do not know what by body is willing to let me do.  I need to not let pride get in the way if I am not feeling it at all. 

If you are reading this (basically I think just my wife and mother in law read this blog) say a prayer that I feel great Sunday morning and whatever this injury is miraculously goes away, or at the least does not hinder me too much.