The Half Marathon

I saw a good portion of my readers this past weekend, or at least I think I did. So this may be a repeat. Before I get into how the half marathon went for me, I would like to tell you a little story that relates to the half marathon. Mid way through this summer I was at my sister's house. My nephew, Jared, had just signed up for football which started in August. The coach sent out an off season exercise program for each player to follow leading up to the first practice. I saw this schedule and said that I would help Jared out with his training. The sheet said that on the first day of practice they would perform the following drills: Push ups for a minute, sit ups for a minute, a 40 yard dash, a 20 yard dash backwards, and a 1/2 mile run. Every time I stopped by my sister's this summer I went through and did these drills with Jared. He did OK with all of these except the 1/2 mile run. Every time we did the 1/2 mile run, he would quit and walk after 2 minutes. It was the fifth time I had stopped by over the summer to train with Jared. He had been telling me that he could do the run without walking. So we went for the run. But it was the same thing, 2 minutes in he said he couldn't run any more. I told him too bad and grabbed him by the arm and basically dragged him for the next 3 minutes making him run that entire 1/2 miles. Jared didn't like this at all. He was crying the whole way. But you know what he was able to do the run just fine. I asked him later and he agreed that it was the worst experience of this life. Keep this story in mind as I tell you how the half marathon went this weekend.

My one disclaimer I would like to mention is that in telling my half marathon story, that I am in no way making any excuses for my time or how I performed, these are simply the facts of the race. This half marathon was merely a training tool for my full marathon in October in Minneapolis. Two weeks ago I was also working on my training for these runs and ran 17 miles. At about 14 miles in to that run, I could feel my left knee get a little sore, it sort of felt like I had hyperextended it, but I didn't. I didn't think too much about it and kept running on it and finished my 17 miles. Like I said I was a little sore, but not too bad. In the time since that run and leading up to the half marathon, I took it somewhat easy on my training with my longest run being 3 miles. I also had a little soreness in my left knee after that run. Again nothing too bad that I couldn't run through. So let's fast forward to Saturday and the half marathon.

My goal for the race was 1 hour 45 minutes (that is about 8 minute miles). Realistically I was thinking it would be closer to 1 hour 50 minutes, but I knew I could break 2 hours. The race starts and I knew I didn't want to start out too fast. I started in the front 1/3 of the 700 plus racers. I got into a good pace, and following some advice I got from my buddy Kaker. I found a good looking girl keeping a good pace and ran behind her so I had something to look at plus I was clipping along at the pace I wanted. When I reached the 1st mile marker the time was 8:38. I thought to myself, "See you later sister, I got some work to do." and I went flying by that girl. The next mile I ran in 7:40. At this point I started to get some mild soreness on the outside of my left knee. Still I kept the pace up. I completed mile 3 in 7:56. My knee was feeling a little worse but still I was OK and holding decent form. Mile 4 was finished in 7:57. It was at this point I had scheduled myself to walk for a minute, eat some Gu and grab some water. I started walking and within 30 seconds I could feel my left knee tighten up and it felt like it was going to lock up in the straight position. I told myself if I don't start running now, I would be able to after a minute. So started running again. The pain went from about a 2 on a 1-10 scale before I started walking to a 5 after the walk. But I muscled through and finished mile 5 in 8:35. Mile 6 was 8:20. Mile 7 was 8:45. This is where the pain increased to about an 8. My body couldn't handle the pain and I had to slow down my pace. At this point I was 58 minutes into the race with 6 miles to go. The pain was killing me and I wanted to walk so bad, but two things were running through my mind. 1. If I started walking I wouldn't be able to run again. 2. I made Jared run, if I didn't run, I would by a hypocrite. With my pace slowed the rest of the race went as follows: Mile 8 was 9:54, Mile 9 was 9:57, Mile 10 was 10:03, Mile 11 was 10:42, Mile 12 was 10:24, and Mile 13 I felt a bit of adrenaline and crossed in 9:16.
It was a very disappointing race for me. Up until around mile 6 I don't think 5 people passed me, and I passed easily 100 other runners, maybe more. Once I had to slow my pace to 10:00 miles, everyone and their brother was passing me. I would just stare at their knees as they ran past, wishing I could switch knees with them. And once I slowed my pace, I wasn't even breathing hard. Yes it was a disappointing race, I really do think without knee problems I would have finished in 1:45, but as it was I crossed the finish line in 1 hour 58 minutes.
I would finally like to send out a special thanks to Julie, Nick and Ethan. They are the only ones who came to cheer me on and watch me cross the finish line. When you put in the hard work and training, it is nice to have someone there to appreciate it when you cross the finish line. Just the presence of being there and the little bit of cheering can make a big difference for a runner and help you to dig down and get a little more out of your body. So again thank you for showing up.