I recently joined the enlisted into the National Guard and my ship date is May 9th. In the frist week of april, I was running (In worn out shoes) and when I got about half a mile both of my shins were in extreme pain. A week later my right leg felt normal as my left leg was still in pain. Yesterday it felt good enough so I bought some good shoes and went for a run. A half mile later extreme pain again (This time only in my left shin). My question is if this "condition" would delay my entry? Is there anything I can do?

We called them shin splints. Wait till you start rucking 5+ miles everyday and you will become immune to the pain. The best way to avoid it are good shoes/boots and to try to make your impacts as smooth as possible. As far as I know nothing serious comes out of it and your shins will constantly get stronger until the pain goes away. Thats what the drills told us anyway. We all had them, they will go away with conditioning.

I hate to bust your bubble but the comment "nothing serious will come of it" is wrong.

Shin Splints (Wikipedia)
Shin Splints (Answers.com)

I suffer from severe shin splints. Mine got to the point where it was waking me up at night from a sound sleep. I belive this is due to going from doing little to no running on concrete/hard surfaces for 3.5 years to running 3-5 miles 4 times a week with no build-up. I generally ran on a treadmill or an elliptical trainer. This sudden change in activity and surface gave rise to my shin splints (which happen to be on the inside of both my legs near the ankle).

Thankfully I have not developed stress fractures or other more serious issues.

Some exercises you can do to help condition your shins:

Training
Therapy
General Information and Therapy

Hope this helps you.

Tip:
Get small dixie cups. Fill with water and freeze them. Tear off the upper portion of the cup, leaving a bit to hold onto. Rub the affected area of your shin(s) for 6-10 minutes (I usually do 8 minutes) at least twice per day. I generally tend to actually rub it in somewhat firmly once it goes numb. Currently the doctors have me in physical therapy in the hopes that rest and mild to moderate conditioning (with a rest from any impact activities) will get me back to running with my Marines.

Well I guess I was told. My advice is to judge for yourself. They hurt like hell but I survived and so did everyone else.

Originally Posted by Big_Z

Well I guess I was told. My advice is to judge for yourself. They hurt like hell but I survived and so did everyone else.

Wasn't trying to tell you off friend. Just trying to steer the young man in the right direction.

The Jarhead has given sageful advice .. heed it.

You should however NOT stop exercising..

Find a pool, swim a few klicks..
Ride a bike..for no less then 10 klicks..

My point being after looking at your previous post...You NEED to keep exercising..
ONE factor causing you these problems is probably your excess weight.
Get rid of it.

//KJ.

Originally Posted by Marinerhodes

Wasn't trying to tell you off friend. Just trying to steer the young man in the right direction.

No offense taken. A drill told me that and we know they aren't exactly the most truthful or caring of people.

The icing is very important.
I used to get shin splints back in high school when I was new to cross country running and the roads in Indonesia were a total nightmare.
I don't get them anymore no matter how long I run.
But my knees don't seem to work anymore.
This is what will happen to you in a friggin' combat unit...

Originally Posted by Marinerhodes

Tip:
Get small dixie cups. Fill with water and freeze them. Tear off the upper portion of the cup, leaving a bit to hold onto. Rub the affected area of your shin(s) for 6-10 minutes (I usually do 8 minutes) at least twice per day. I generally tend to actually rub it in somewhat firmly once it goes numb. Currently the doctors have me in physical therapy in the hopes that rest and mild to moderate conditioning (with a rest from any impact activities) will get me back to running with my Marines.

The ice in the dixie cups help very much. I have severe shin splints at the moment and I do this every day and it seems to help. Another thing you might want to consider doing is stretching your Achilles tendon ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achilles_tendon ). Since shin splints is basically when the muscles and tendons start to tear away from the bone, stretching the Achilles tendon helps with loosening it up a little. As Big Z said, your shins will probably get stronger as time goes on until it stops hurting.

Just ice and stretch constantly. They should help a lot.