Lower leg pain

Hi,

I'm currently training for my first marathon (London), following the Hal Higdon novice 1 traing plan. All has been going fine but this week near the end of a 7 mile run I felt a strange prickling/stinging pain in my left calf. I stopped and stretched and finished the run and all seemed fine. Yesterday I set out on a 10 mile run and a couple of miles in the same started to happen though the symptoms seemed to move around. It varied from a prickling/stinging in the back and outside of my calf, a tightness and aching in the bottom of my calf muscle, stiffness and aching lower down at the top of my ankle and occasional aches on the outside of the shin and the outside of my ankle just behind the knobbly bone that sticks out at the side. None of this was very painful (I'd say a 3) but it was a bit uncomfortable and didn't feel 100% right while running. It also didn't seem isolated to either calf, achiles, shin or ankle so not really sure what it is. It stopped as soon as I stopped running and feels fine apart from some stiffness and occasional twinges when I walk downstairs.

Although I managed the run fine I'm wary of pushing on and causing damage, and would rather run without the discomfort. I'm lucky that I've never had any serious injury from running but as a first time marathoner I'm having trouble determining what are normal aches and pains and can be run through, and what are signs of a more serious injury that is going to prevent me from running the marathon.

Has anyone had these sort of symptoms, or can anyone give anyone give any idea of what it might be? My initial thoughts are to rest for a week and just stick to some cross training in the gym and swimming then try again next weekend. Does that seem like a along enough rest? Don't want to leave it too long with only 9 weeks to go, but also don't want to aggravate it any further.

Any help or advice gratefully received!