A year ago at this time, I was starting to feel good about my running progress. In my second summer of jogging, I was getting faster and more confident, stretching out the distances to the point of being able to run four or five miles without too much trouble. Near the end of the summer, I even jogged 8.2 miles on a whim, only stopping because I was afraid I'd aggravate my shin splints, which never really stopped hurting since I started running in summer 2009.

I felt good. Weight was melting off my body. I had aspirations of running a half marathon this summer.

Then, one day in January, I felt a funny pain in my butt after snow blowing my alley. Over the next few weeks, that pain grew to the point that I was limping. My general practitioner told me I had sciatica, and there wasn't much I could do about it. I began doing physical therapy and chiropractic several times a week. The pain got a little better.

But not good enough. Four months after the nagging pain that was shooting down my left leg and making it hard to concentrate at work, I went to an orthopedist, who ordered an MRI. It showed a moderately sized herniated disc, which is pushing against the nerve that runs along my butt cheek and down my leg. The doctor suggested a cortisone injection.

Unfortunately, that procedure not only didn't help, it seemed to make the pain worse. He recommended trying an oral steroid; again, I didn't notice any change. I've tried massage and acupuncture and an Eastern medicine specialist. The chiropractic helps; the trick, I guess, is sustaining the progress. Apparently, there's a chance my body will adjust or I'll learn to live with the pain.

Seven months into this, that hasn't happened yet.

All along, I've continued to run, albeit much more slowly and logging fewer miles. All the doctors agree that I probably won't make my condition any worse. Anti-inflammatories like Celebrex seem to take the edge off, and if it gets really bad, I can take a Vicodin, though I don't like the idea of using narcotics to mask the pain. I've gained back the 13 pounds I lost last summer, and then some.

If you've ever experienced chronic pain, you know that it makes lying on the couch very appealing.

Yet I keep plodding along. Sunday, I stretched my run out to 4.25 miles, the longest I've gone since the pain started. It actually didn't hurt while running; somehow it made the pain feel better. I certainly felt it after, though, and that might just be a fact of life, unless I opt for back surgery – a microdiscetomy – which is my least preferable option, and one that I will delay until I can't take it anymore.

At this point, I need to keep going, because in less than two weeks, I will fulfill a promise I made to myself last summer: to run the Summerfest Rock 'n Sole 10K, over the Hoan Bridge and back.

I won't lie to you, I'm getting pretty scared. It's not that 10K is all that long; I've run 6.2 miles or longer perhaps a dozen times, though certainly not this season. I'm particularly nervous about the route, though, which goes up and down the impossibly steep Hoan Bridge. Twice.

I fully expect to finish in dead last place. That is, if the race doesn't kill me first.

On top of the challenge of running while hurt, I'm slated to review Britney Spears the night before at the Marcus Amphitheater. Even if I fly through the review and post it very quickly, it'll be a challenge to be asleep before 2 a.m. Sunday. The Summerfest Rock 'n Sole begins at 8 a.m. That's not a lot of rest for what should be the hardest physical challenge I've ever undertaken.

But there's no chance I'm not doing this run. It's the Hoan Bridge, for goodness sake, the very bridge that's on the logo of OnMilwaukee.com. And I've never set foot on this bridge that I drive over every day. Even if I have to finish this race on my hands and knees, I'm doing it.

I just don't expect it to be pretty.

In the meantime, I'm open to any advice from readers who've dealt with this pain, or just want to offer encouraging words. Or, you can tell me I'm crazy for undertaking this race in the first place. I won't dispute that, either.

Either way, it's going to be an awesome event, and I'm delighted that Summerfest is taking a chance on it. Running, jogging, walking, limping or crawling, I'll be there ... and I will do my best.