I was hoping to break last years time (1:46:25) and finally get under 1:45. But I wasn't sure how my left leg was going to do today after the fiasco at the MCM two weeks ago. I told Kai (Caleb) to not worry about running with me - just run his own race. So when the start gun went off, he took off. I settled into an 8 min/mile pace like I wanted. My leg was feeling alright, so I just kept running at that pace. At the first water stop, I took Gaterade. For some reason, it didn't settle well in my stomach - so I only took water from that point on.

Kai had also settled into an 8 min/mile pace and I could see him not far ahead. I decided to let him stay there and try to catch back up at the end if I was still feeling good. I never caught back up with him though (he held his pace well and finished in 1:44:57).

At mile 8.5 NickInNC passed me. He was running strong and looked like he could just keep on running like that all day!:) I was still doing alright at this point, but was starting to feel tired. We had a birthday party for Connor the day before and our family Thanksgiving, so I was on my feet for 12 hours the day before. I wasn't sure if I was feeling drained because of the day before or because I was only taking in water. But since I was still keeping my 8 min/mile pace, I didn't worry about it much and just kept trudging along.

I got a little mental boost about a mile later when I passed Jen (DD), Brandon, and Maria (sister). I saw them before they saw me, so I started waving my arms to get their attention. I probably looked like a fool but didn't care. I asked how far ahead Kai was and they said not far. So I decided to try to start reeling him in. This is probably were I went wrong.

Up until this point my IT band had been doing alright (it had started to tighten up but it wasn't bad or affecting my pace). Once I tried to pick up my pace though, it revolted. I had to slow down and never really got my pace back after that. From mile 10 to the finish I just seemed to keep losing time. I hit the on-ramp to the last bridge and looked at my Garmin. My time was already 1:37 and I had at least 1.5 miles still to run, so I knew I wouldn't make the 1:45 time I wanted. Since I knew I wouldn't make my time anyway, I didn't push the final miles like I normally would.

As I was coming down the final stretch, I heard my name yelled from the side. This confused me because Liz was the only one at the finish line (I thought) and there were several people yelling my name. After I finished I found out that Jen, Brandon and Maria had jumped into a car after they saw me around mile 9 and drove to the finish to see me finish!

Not try to catch up with my son-in-law! Picking up the pace may not have been the reason my IT band became a problem (it may have done it anyway), but I am sure it didn't help.

After I crossed the finish line and stopped running, my IT band really tightened. I could barely bend my knee and it hurt to walk. I didn't see my family yet, but I saw a tent with a Chiropractor doing ART (and no line). So I filled out the form. While I was filling out the form, my family arrived. The Chiropractor worked on my IT band while my family watched (and it hurt like hell!!).

After I was finished there, I was going to get something to eat. But the line for the food tent was really long, so I decided to just get something on the way home. We decided not to stay for the awards because I was sure I hadn't placed since I was 3 minutes slower this year. We had also left my husband alone with 2 kids (and it turns out that Darien didn't go back to sleep and he woke up Connor to have someone to play with)! :)


IT band.