Fresh off the heels of a 12 hour adventure race last weekend, I decided to "attempt" another marathon. Unfortunaltely, I did not finish. I didn't feel that fresh in the first few miles, but this didn't concern me because I never feel good the first few miles of a run. During the loop around Audubon Park (about 8 miles in), my knees started bothering me...this
did concern me because I never have knee pain. The nagging discomfort didn't subside over the next couple of miles so I decided around mile 11 that I should quit after the first half rather than injure myself (i would hate to jeopardize my adventure racing seasoin!). I'm pretty convinced that the knee pain was directly related to the adventure race last weekend. In addition, my legs just felt tired (understandably so). As I crossed the half-marathon line, I decided that I would just slow my pace and turn around once Moe caught up with me (I knew he was planning to run with the 4:15 pace group...I was running with the 4:00 pace group at this point). Before I knew it, I was staring at the foot of the overpass on Wisner Blvd (around mile 16.5) and new I didn't want to run up it so I turned around and started heading back. A few minutes later, I finally see Moe. He looked strong, and was excited to see a friendly face. I ran with him for a few minutes and tried to be as encouraging as I could. I then turned around again and headed towards the Start/Finish. I still had about 4 miles just to get back...the knees were really bothering me now. Long story short...I eventually make it back near the finish line just in time to see Matt come in around 3:17...wow. Later on, Moe came cruising through the finish line around 4:45. Congrats to both of them. At the end of the day, I did not complete what would have been my 4th marathon, actually ended up doing a long run of about 20 miles. In case your wondering, I'm not dissappointed...I know I made the right decision!
