well *that* was harder than it looked!
March 7th, 2010We ran the Napa marathon, today. I’ve been joking with Doug that when our friends go to Napa they get spa treatments and drink wine, and when we went, all we got were stinky tshirts and in my case a little soul in my stroll. We must be doing it wrong.
So it went. We set a PR at the half – which isn’t saying all that much at 1:50 – but we were aiming for under 9 minute miles and ended up zipping along a lot more comfortably and faster than anticipated. Comfortable all except my knee which until 13 was manageable, but definitely screaming like a petulant 3 year old who wants candy that she knows she isn’t going to get. At the 14 mile mark feed I was apparently looking pretty pained, and the knee had escalated it’s screaming to the over-tired 3 year old who really just isn’t going to stop until she falls asleep. The PT there pulled me over and stuffed me full of banana while she taped my knee. By this point, things weren’t going so well, and I was considering my options as the course wasn’t getting any flatter and though the tape was sticking, it wasn’t really cutting the pain. I took some advil and somehow ran/walked a few 9+ minute miles to 18 where I was doing more walking than running and sent Doug on his way. We met up at one more feed before parting ways. From 18 to 26.2, I just ran for the cameras. 4:26. The important thing is that I beat the guy in the funny shoes and the 70 year old guy with the bionic knee (no cartilage). I don’t know if I beat the guy with only one leg. It was close.
I’m icing and stretching and hoping to do the Marin Headlands half marathon on 4/3 and perhaps Marin Marathon on 4/25. Gotta keep trying until we get it right.