This was my first race since Marine Corps Marathon and I was very aware of how the knee was feeling throughout the race.

The race started and was an immediate uphill in the crowd. It took the usual mile or so until the crowd thinned enough for me to fall into my appropriate pace.

The knee felt good through the climbing and through some of the descending during the first 2 miles. After the 1/2 mark, it started to get more and more sore. At that point though, I knew I wasn't going to stop, and that I was just going to run through it.

I did realize a couple of things though:
1. The knee throws up a shooting pain whenever I overstride. There were a couple of instances where I extended my foot futher than usual, and quickly felt the twinge shoot up my leg. As long as I kept the stride compact, the knee was only sore.
2. When I get tired, my form goes to crap and I tend to overstride. The only time I threw my leg too far was when I was tired and going downhill.

All in all, the race was really good and I was kind of surprised at how fast my pace ended up being. I was figuring I'd be closer to 10min/mile and would have broken 9min/mile if the crowd at the beginning wasn't so slow.


Nothing.

Stretch, stretch, and more stretch. Then hop in line for some food.


Hung around after the race finished to see my time.

Ran into Chippy and the Icicle formerly known as Stake. :)