Made it to the finish line, where they were serving up some Irish coffee, which I clearly really enjoyed!
Today's race was interesting. I did something I've never done before: I walked -- not because I needed to, but because I wanted to. (I've walked before out of sheer pain, but I've never purposely just walked.) I was worried about my knee and didn't want to push myself too hard and burn out on the hills, so I took a lot of walk breaks, walked through every aid station and basically just tried to go as easy as possible. Even with this, I was moving along at a good clip -- when I ran, I held a 9:30 pace pretty comfortably.
Everything was fine -- great even -- until about Mile 10, when we started the descent down a really large hill in the Presidio into the Seacliff neighborhood. (Very cool to run this, by the way -- back in the day, when I was still living in SF, I would drive this route home from work. Who would've known that one day I'd be crazy enough to run it?) My left knee -- the one that's been bugging me this past week -- suddenly decided it was done behaving. It started to hurt pretty badly. I ended up walking a good portion of the last few miles, run-limping across the finish line (my stride probably looked like Frankenstein in short-shorts) and went straight to the medi tent for some ice.
So I've been icing and elevating since. The pain isn't so bad now, but the knee is definitely swollen. I suspect patellofemoral pain syndrome (a.k.a. "Runner's Knee" -- fitting, huh?), and I've got a doctor's appointment tomorrow to get it checked out. I'm really hoping I won't be sidelined for a long time. This race -- the energy of thousands of runners converging in one city -- made me even more excited for Portland, and overall, I feel really good -- I'm definitely a much stronger runner now than I was at this time a year ago. I can't wait for another shot at 26.2!
Anyway, my time was 2:16:24. Not my best, but I'm just glad I finished. (Also, there was Pirate's Booty at the finish line. I think I grabbed like six bags.)
No comments
Post a Comment