My first race of the season was on Sunday - the St. Albert 10 Miler Road Race. I had taken a couple of weeks off of running because my knee has been causing me problems. After about an hour of running, the outside of my knee would hurt enough to stop me in my tracks and I would have to hobble home. I was hoping my knee was healed after the time off and the exercises I was doing.
I even bought a knee brace to give my knee support. Hell, at this point I'm willing to try anything. Well, that was a joke because with every step I took, the brace would fall down, so that came off pretty quickly. Good thing it was during my warm up.
The weather was fantastic, and so far so good - I had no knee pain. My heart rate was pretty high, but I have a lot of endurance so I wasn't too worried that I would tucker out. I also had my foot pod on to tell me my pace. It was anywhere between a 7:30 - 8:20 minute mile. This is good. I'll be able to finish this faster than last year. Yeah! Then my knee pain came back to haunt me, and it was only 16:20 into the race. What happened to the hour it used to take???? It wasn't painful, but I could feel a twinge and I was hoping it wouldn't get worse.
By the time 54 minutes came around, about 10 km into the race, my knee was so sore that I was considering stopping and walking home. Whaaat, I run 10 km in a triathlon faster than this. I guess I have more time to warm up in a tri! A sign on on the road said "If you were doing a 10 km, you'd be finished now". Yeah, yeah, nice sense of humour. I looked up the hill to the finish line and there was a runner headed towards the finish line - whaaat, 10 miles in 54 minutes. I've got four miles to go. That made me think, "maybe the pain will subside in a few minutes", and I continued running. I had to walk a couple times because of the pain, but it subsided and eventually went away. I'm a glutton for punishment and I suspected I would pay for it later. Pain from injuries just doesn't miraculously go away.
Miles 6-9 are a gradual incline, but mile nine is the hardest because it is all up hill and it isn't gradual, at least it doesn't seem like it at this point in the race. Mile 10 is partially flat and then down hill so you'd think it would be the easiest, but not so grasshopper. Your legs are toast by then - at least mine were.
I dug deep for the last 1/2 mile because it was down hill and I had gravity working with me. Not only that - my house is on the last little bit of the course, so I couldn't let my parents see any weakness. Who am I kidding, they've seen me at my worst. My Mom is a great cheerleader and all the runners appreciate her cheering everybody on.
Finished - finally. After the run, my knee was excruciating. It probably took me 20 minutes to walk home, where it would usually take 10. I went for my free dilly bar and then walked home. Check out the overall results. Here are the age group results.
Oh, remember that foot pod I told you about? It isn't very accurate because it said I ran 10.9 miles, and with my finishing time, I knew my pace was wrong. I finished 24 seconds faster than last year - so much for my foot pod. I also have to get this knee issue fixed. I definitely can't run a half marathon or marathon with a knee problem.
Next race - Coronation Triathlon in Edmonton. That's always a fun race because the bike course is closed to traffic and I get to ride down the curvy part of Groat Road. Stay tuned.
