Everything started out really good, hit my first mile time exactly where I wanted to, right around 9:40 pace which was my goal. Everything was going well. Then right about at the 2 mile mark, I started feeling stabbing pain in my knee. My ITB was already starting to act up and the race had barely even begun. I knew it was going to be a long race. I pulled over to the side of the road and readjusted my knee strap a bit a couple of times until I found a spot that felt good. I got back to running and by the 3 mile mark the knee pain was more just an annoyance than a sharp pain. I knew that my goal time was out the window and I just wanted to maintain a decent pace. I started hitting my miles right at the 10:00 pace, everything was going well and I felt great (fitness wise, knee still bothering me). I made it to the turn around and started heading back south. At the 10 mile mark I was still right on 10 minute miles (right around 1:40 maybe a little bit under) and we went over a little bridge which seemed like the first downhill of the race, I tried to pick it up for the last 5k but my knee just gave out and I almost wanted to cry. Here I was 5k away, managing the pain and I couldn't go any further. I slowed down to a walk and figured, "I'll walk until the knee doesn't hurt anymore." Well, I was pretty ticked off so my walk was more a death march, about a half a mile later I tried to pick it up again and my knee just wouldn't have any of it. So I decided fitness wise I was still feeling great, so I began doing my best impression of the race walkers, this wasn't hurting my knee at all and I was keeping up with some of the "runners" while doing it. Just 2 miles to go, I was going to race walk this all the way in. When I turned the last corner and had 0.1 miles to go I decided "To hell with it, my knee can take it for this little bit" so I picked it up to what had to have been the most painful looking run/gallop/trot and got across the finish line.

I was pretty happy with my overall fitness coming into the race. It was always what had held me back in past races. This time it was my knee (ITB). I would do more hip strengthening exercises and find ways to avoid hurting my knee.

As I crossed the finish line, a medical person ran towards me with a wheelchair, my gallop/run/trot and my face must have looked pretty bad. I told them I could walk, but they offered to assist me to the medical tent where I could get a nice ITB massage, ice, and ibuprofen. I stayed in the tent for a little while and finally was helped to my feet by the RN's and PT's in the tent. I walked around a bit, changed into some warmer clothes, then walked back to the finish line to see my wife kill it in her marathon.


My stupid IT band. Like I said above, I always thought it would be my lack of fitness that prohibited me from performing, but I felt great fitness wise the whole race, my knee just would only allow me to do so much.


A great course and a great race that just seems to be getting better every year.