Because my knee was bothering me, I decided to do 4/1 run/walk intervals throughout. My Garmin battery died right before the race so I figured I'd just run at the pace that felt right and not worry about speed too much. I wore my watch and used the interval timer. Have to admit, it was really nice to ditch the icky, constricting HRM strap!

I tried to view this race as a training run rather than a race because of my knee. At the start, the two women I beat last time pulled away pretty quickly, as did the rest of the pack. I nearly caught up to a dad and his 9 y.o. daughter when it was time to drop to a walk. I let them go, almost caught them again, let them go, and so on. Meanwhile, the two women continued to pull farther away. At that point, I was pretty much running on my own so I started to focus on my surroundings more than on catching people. I didn't want to push myself too hard and cause more residual knee pain.

As I was running, I saw 3 robin egg shells on the path, a tween boy on a 6' unicycle riding on the cinder path behind his mom, and some people fishing in the pond. At mi. 1, I was pretty close to 10 m/m, which felt pretty good. I forgot to push the lap button and didn't get exact times for each mile, but it felt pretty consistent.

Around mi. 2, there was a bit of a hill. The 9 y.o. had dropped to a walk so I said, "Come on, you're supposed to stay in front of me!!" She picked up her pace a little, but then was too pooped to keep it up. Her dad (who was very fit and could obviously go faster), gave me a smile and wave as I went by. I noticed that my knee was gradually starting to hurt sooner and sooner into the run intervals. I tried to run through it for a bit, then decided to allow myself to walk when it got too uncomfortable. It was frustrating to have to walk. Walking always feels like giving up even though I know it isn't. Still, the combination of the pain and the having to walk sucked, as did hearing the cheers for the finishers knowing that I still had another 2 mi. and 20 min. to go to finish.

As I passed mi. 3, it started to sprinkle a little, just enough to feel like I was tingling. I wasn't hot (wore a tank and shorts), but it felt really refreshing. When I came to the grassy area and could see the finish flags, I decided to skip the walking and power through to the finish. I felt really strong, pumping my arms crossing the grass to the finish line. My first comment to the RD was, "Hey, I can still talk this time!"

Get a knee replacement? Seriously, the only thing I'd change would be to bring some water. My mouth got pretty dry by the end. The run/walk interval ratio seemed just about right and I made the right call to allow myself to walk earlier as needed.

Grabbed a warmer shirt and a rain jacket as the rain moved in, then ordered a mushroom pizza from the food truck (yum!!). Got a Dr. Pepper from the "beer garden" (an old cooler with some canned sodas and local brews) and chatted with the "beer garden" attendant a little while waiting for the award ceremony. I made sure to cheer in the 9 y.o. and her dad and the two final finishers. The last runner wore a t-shirt that said, "I may be slower than a herd of turtles in peanut butter, but at least I'm running." Gotta hand it to her. She might have been last, but she WAS running when she crossed the line and she finished with a grin.

As things broke up, there was an absolutely gorgeous complete rainbow. I'm dreading the day when it's 90*, and I have no doubt that's going to happen at some point this summer. We can't keep getting this lucky!!


Knee pain.


The RD did a survey of racers after the 1st race and got a food truck by popular request. Pretty much everybody, racers and family/friends, bought food, so hopefully they'll be able to keep getting a food truck to come. The organizer and RD are great, and it's neat to be recognized by the volunteers and meet some of the other racers, even if they do beat me.