Planned to do the 60K but was surprised to find knee pain about 6-7 miles in. Took a couple Advil that I'd brought with me but never got relief. Temperatures started dropping and I started feeling miserable. My fingers were numb because my gloves were soaked. My shoes were soaked through and my feet were cold. I was at a bad place mentally, angry with the knee, angry with the dropped temperatures. I remembered seeing my second pair of gloves in the camper and knew they hadn't made my drop bag. Knew I'd packed a pair of wool socks and the GTX shoes so was figuring out what to change at the 13.1 mark. I realized after a couple more miles that my knee pain was greater than I'd felt before and that I was in no shape to continue. Athough I do these events for fun and exercise, it wasn't happening for me this day.

Get a new knee and don't forget to pack the second pair of gloves.

After some tears of frustration and humilitation I changed shoes at the finish, put on some layers, grabbed a cupcake(homemade by the RD's wife which were delicious)and walked back through the trails to the campground feeling like a failure. Used all the hot water in the camper for the shower then took a nap. Felt drained of energy the rest of the day. Overall I was out of sorts and not my normal, cheerful self.


Knee and weather


I love this race as it's the site of my first marathon and it's a beautiful course. It's a small, family run race where the money goes to a good cause. They have a bagpiper at the start playing beautifully and it's organized. The trails were marked better than they were last year (which was the first year) but it would be nice to have arrow signs and mile markers as some of the painted arrows were washed away with the hard rain. Lord's willing I'll be back next year to do all 3 loops and earn my 60K personally engraved metal. In the meantime, I've got to find a resolution to my knee pain.