Limitations

After my sprint-triathlon in the spring I decided my next challenge would be to run a 1/2 marathon. I had always told myself that I could never be a long-distance runner. That I just wasn't made for endurance running. I had put a limitation on myself that I wanted to challenge. So, I picked a race, the Top of Utah Half-Marathon, registered and started training. I invited my friend Amber to do it with me and she agreed. Training was going well, but due to other events in my life, I realized that I was going to have a scheduling conflict that day. So, about a week ago Amber and I decided we would run the course together before the actual race. We agreed that yesterday would work best for both of us.

My training recommended that I get in one final long run a week before the race and then taper down. So last Monday I ran 10 miles. It was the worst run of my life. I have always had a little pain in my IT band, but that night, for whatever reason, my left knee wasn't cooperating at all. At about mile 5 I was in serious pain, but I wouldn't allow myself to stop, I wanted to run the full 10 miles. I pushed through the pain, and about the last mile and a half I was nearly in tears. It was excruciatingly painful. I hardly slept at all that night, and even a few days later my knee was still hurting. I decided to go back out on Thursday for a short run, but after a mile I had to walk. I didn't think there was any way I would be able to run the half-marathon the next Monday. I decided I would just rest it and give it my all on "race day."

Well, Monday came and I hardly slept at all the night before. I probably got about 2 hours of sleep. I got up at 5:30 to meet Amber at 6:00, but on the way to meet her I got pulled over for speeding. Luckily I got off without a ticket. Then we drove up to Providence, just outside of Logan, and made our way to the starting line, and started running. Things were okay for about the first mile, but then the pain started. I had talked to a physical therapist a few days before, who had recommended stretching my IT band more, so at mile 2 I decided to stop and stretch it, to see if that would help. It did, for about a half mile, but then the pain came back, so I stopped at mile 3 and stretched it again. At that point I didn't think there was any way I would be able to finish all 13.1 miles. But that became my pattern. I would run a mile, then stop to stretch for one minute, and commit to another mile of agony. I was making good time while I was running, about a 9 minute mile, so with the minute of stretching each mile, I was still on track to meet my goal of finishing under 2:10. It was definitely an exercise of mind over matter. By mile 11 I was still on track to make my goal. That's when things went from bad to worse. I took a wrong turn somewhere. When we started going through a neighborhood I realized I hadn't payed very good attention to the map. I was lost. I just kept running. I ended up taking three wrong turns, and adding over a mile to the race before I finally stopped and asked a nice woman for directions. I ended up finishing in 2:24. I must have ran closer to 14.5 miles.

My first thought was, I need a redo! On a good day,without knee pain, or the extra detour, I bet I could have run it in close to 2 hours. After thinking about it a little more, I changed my mind. I'm glad I did it, but I should just cross it off the list, and know that my self-imposed limitation no longer exists. Once again I believe, more strongly than ever, that I can do anything I put my mind to. As long as I am willing to put forth the effort, there is pretty much nothing I can't accomplish.