Who shows up to a half marathon with a knee injury and zero base mileage and does it anyway?
*raises hand* Me.
There's a fine line between gutsy and stupid, and I think I pretty much live on that line. I own REAL ESTATE on that line. I have claimed it on behalf of my mother land.
I injured my knee three weeks ago, and while it's mostly better, it's not 100%. I had hoped to be able to run SOME of this race, but as it turned out, a few 3-minute repeats brought on some sharp pains behind my kneecap, and I knew that it was going to be a looooong morning.
It's hard going from averaging 3 hours for a half (with a PR of 2:44) to knowing that I would be taking longer than 4 hours. It's a definitely blow to my ego. I haven't taken that long for a few YEARS (not counting last year's Summit Rock half which took me 5 hours because it was hilly as f***. I climbed a damn mountain.)
Add to that the fact that Morgan Hill was my first FULL marathon, and here I was, hobbling through the half all by myself, and I was not a happy camper. The only thing keeping me going was the fact that I am running out of opportunities to finish my 13 in '13, and I really wanted the Bay Area Running Series medal.
And also, I missed running. Not that I got to run much yesterday.
It was interesting doing the half this time. At the start line, I overheard many excited people talking about how this was their first full, and it made me a little emotional because that was me last year. I'm no grizzled veteran of marathoning, but I can relate to how it feels. (Maybe that feeling never actually goes away.)
The half course was so much easier than the full, and not just because of the distance. Far less hilly, though the downhills were pretty brutal on my knee. Still the same stench of cow poop though - that is less fun.
I finished in 4:12:37. Oi. It sucks not being able to run.
But at least I finished? I don't know, it still doesn't feel like a victory in my book.
Next up: my thirteenth half marathon on the year, the ZombieRunner Halloween half marathon on November 2nd. TIME TO WRAP THIS UP. Then the Mermaid Sirena 10-miler on November 10th. And... that'll be it for 2013. So far.