Sunday, December 07, 2008

A Hilly Chilly Run to Victory

I picked out this half marathon (Run to Victory) for a few reasons-it was relatively close to the house and it benefited Victory Junction Gang-a camp for kids with medical problems. Kyle and Richard Petty were there to start everyone off-kind of cool!

I had a goal of breaking 1:50 and thought for sure I could do it. I had no idea what was in store for me though. And I know I can do this at some point, but today was not my day. It was a bit chilly in the low 30's but windy, so it felt like mid 20's. And it was HILLY. Like STEEP hills. I was not expecting hills like this. And never ending, it was either up or down, never that long of any stretches of flat.

I managed ok through 8 miles and then I think the hills finally caught up to me. I was totally only pace through 8 miles just plugging along around 1:47 pace and then I just crashed. By mile 10 my knee hurt so bad, I ended up shuffling the last few miles around 10 min pace. I was so mad-and have decided that maybe a full marathon is just not in store for me. I had knee issues then and today was the first time in a long time that it got that bad again. Oh well. I ended up running 1:52. Technically this is the fastest half I have run, so that should make me happy but I ran 1:53 for the first half of my full marathon 2 years ago.

Oh well. Whats done is done and we (actually more EZ) spent the rest of the weekend painting the downstairs-family room, kitchen and eating area. Now EZ wants to get the crown molding up before everyone comes for xmas-he's got 2 weeks!

2 comments:

Krista said...

Don't be so hard on yourself - congrats for a nice run for a great cause! I'm looking forward to logging a few miles with you during our vacation - as long as you can slow the pace down to my turtle speed :)

Emily said...

Sounds like you did great! It's frustrating to be on pace and then wind up in pain, but it happens. Is this the same knee pain you were having years ago?