I'm going to call this Painfest 08 to steal a title from another club member. I went into the event with high hopes for my 1st marathon and for about 5 miles or so, things went just fine. Right on pace with the 5 hr pace group. Then.....things went bad quickly. I've been dealing with on and off, ITB issues all summer and have been stretching and exercising my legs and have had no trouble during the last stages of training. Today though, I could feel it coming on, told c-cic that I was going to have to walk a while and to go ahead. Walked until the pain went away, ran about 1/2 mile, walked then ran 1/4 mile, walked then ran 100 yds and this time the pain didn't go away but got worse and then a LOT worse. And then...and THEN is started to rain. I was dressed to run, not walk and got cold pretty quickly. By the time we got to pretty much the biggest hill, I was down to almost stopped and wanted to quit but was too cold to think straight so couldn't think of who to tell so just kept moving. After quite a while on flat ground, was able to walk almost normally and then sun peeped out and I felt like I'd be ok but then we started down a hill and it started to just pour and it was back to the shuffle.
Long story short, it was a long and very painful day. The last yds, I was having to stop every 20 steps and try to stretch, it was awful , I could see the finish and people were cheering and I couldn't walk! Arrrg!
Saw C-cic waiting for me, stepped over the last timing mat and headed for the Medical Tent, it was sort of funny, the staff was practicing on one of their own and when I limped in, they said "Hey!, get up! we've a real patient!!"

Get the ITB thing assesed and treated so it doesn't come back, whatever it takes.

Limped into the Med tent for a nice 2 hr stay. Lots and LOTS of warm blankets.


ITB, then hip issues. My body really kind of betrayed me today.


This wasn't my best day for sure. I did learn that I could keep going even when I thought I couldn't so that was a big positive. Big Thanks to the Med tent staff, especially Dr Karen, it took a lot of work on their part but they got me moving in time to catch my flight home.
Thanks to my sis and favorite training partner too, you rocked and thanks for getting us through the airport just in time and for your encouragement.
The good thing about this race is that it shouldn't be too hard to beat my time next year!