Monday, November 6, 2017

Monumental Bust


Some things simply were not meant to be this year...

Saturday dawned a perfect day. Temps in the 40's but no rain. I woke up well rested at 4:25 am, 20 minutes before my alarm was set to go off. Ate and dressed in a leisurely fashion and was out the door at 5:30 am on the dot. Pulled into my favorite parking garage downtown and got a space right next to the doors, steps away from the row of port-a-potties.

I had an hour to stretch out, look at the course map again, and relax... plus make multiple trips to the port-a-potty. At 7:15 am I finally left my car for good and made my way to the Personal Best Training (PBT) team tent to stash my bag that had my keys, phone and post-race clothes.

Got into my wave around 7:45 am and found the 3:55 pacer, then hung out a bit of a distance away. Race finally starts.

I started a couple yards behind the pacer, then kept him in the corner of my eye. The first mile felt really easy... and slow. We were definitely slow.

Mile 1 - 9:17

OK, just warming up. This guy will get on pace soon...

Mile 2 - 9:05

I got nervous. I didn't trust this pacer. I decided to take control of my own pacing and found myself ahead of the pacer. Crap crap crap... where did he go? I kept turning my head around to look backwards behind me because I didn't want to get too far ahead.

Mile 3 - 8:36

So that was a fast mile but it made my 3 mile time 26:58... which was pretty much spot on for the overall pace (8:57) that I was supposed to run. I decided after that to just pace myself and be careful not to do anything crazy fast.

Mile 4 - 8:47
Mile 5 - 8:55
Mile 6 - 8:51
Mile 7 - 8:46
Mile 8 - 8:50
Mile 9 - 8:57
Mile 10 - 8:50
Mile 11 - 8:58
Mile 12 - 8:54

So the 3:55 pace group catches up to me at this point and I'm thinking the pacer must have picked it up for a couple miles because I know I'm running about 30 seconds under 3:55 pace at mile 12.

I'm running up College towards Broad Ripple when I got a sudden stabbing pain in my right lateral knee... like someone had shoved a knife in it.

NOOOOOOOO!!!!

This is SO unfair! I was running the nice slow pace just like I was suppose to. I hadn't done anything stupid! Why, why, why?!!

I kept running on it, hoping it would work itself out... but it just got worse.

Mile 13 - 9:13

I went under the arch marking 13.1 at 1:56:53.

Don't panic. You're still on pace. Work it out. There are still miles left to recover and catch back up...

I stopped to try and vigorously shake out my leg/knee. Maybe there was a meniscal floater that got caught? Shaking my leg didn't help.

I tried to stretch my lower leg, then my quads. Maybe there were some tight muscles putting weird stress on my knee? Nope. Stretching didn't help either.

Every time I put weight on my right leg the knife-like pain in my knee got worse and worse. I was visibly limping by now.

Mile 14 - 9:59
Mile 15 - 11:54
Mile 16 - 12:52

I got to the corner of Meridian and 46th Street, 16.35 miles. My Garmin read 2:34:29. BQ time was gone. If I followed the course and made the right hand turn onto 46th Street to wind thru the Butler University campus I was committed to run another 10 miles and finish the race. Best guess was it would take me 5 hours to finish at this rate.

Forget that! My knee hurt too much to hobble for another 2.5 hours in a race that no longer mattered. This corner was as close to my car as I was going to get in what was left of this race. I took off my bib and stepped off the course.

It took me another 1:20 to do a wincing death slog 5.5 miles back downtown to my car. Only thing that kept me moving as fast as I did was that I was freezing in my sweaty race jersey and compression shorts. By the time I got to my car I was shaking so hard I couldn't even think. Turning the heat on and my seat heater didn't help. I didn't stop shaking until I got into a hot shower at home.

I had to keep moving though...

I had to go pick G up from Carmel at 3:30 pm. Then we met up with my Sole Sister Maureen at 5 pm for dinner. Maureen drove in from Peoria, IL to run Monumental and had a great race. So happy for her. She and Trena are the poster children for running consistency as far as I'm concerned!

Maureen and me

My knee was still killing me and I was definitely walking like an amateur who'd never run a marathon before. Nothing was swollen but there was a very uneasy unpleasant pressure sensation every time I put weight on my right leg. Finally got home at 9 pm and dropped into bed.

Not the day I wanted.

I worked all day yesterday. Still had that uneasy feeling in my knee but was able to walk like a normal person... I think.

Better today so hoping I can walk off whatever badness happened. My coach thinks it might have been the slant of the road. Whatever. After 2013 and Saturday I'm convinced Monumental Marathon is cursed for me! Not sure if I ever want to run it again.

Today was a good day. I feel relieved that I'm done running for awhile. My house got cleaned. I made dinner. I relaxed. I'm ready for some down time.


1 comment:

  1. Congrats on making the right call. A DNF is a lot smarter than permanent damage. I'm just amazed that you ran back to your car! That took guts.

    I had a DNF at the Hartford marathon once. I was on pace for the first half, and then felt arch pain at mile 15. Ended up getting a ride back to the start/finish from the medical crew. It was the wise thing to do.

    Now it's time for you to rest, then refocus. Figure out your next racing goal. Good luck to you.

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