Bad luck unraveled my day pretty quickly. Just 3+ miles into the race I caught the edge of a pot hole rolling my ankle into it. "Really? A sprained ankle? That's how this one is going to go down" I thought, absolutely stupefied. "We aren't even sweating yet!"
I didn't stop but hobbled like I had a wooden leg. The five runners and a pace biker looked as shocked as me.
"Are you OK?" came the question with an edge of "how could that be possible" in their voice. That's when I knew it must have looked as bad as it felt.
"Don't stop," one piece of advice from a fellow runner. "It will seize up right-a-way."
"We agree," I thought to myself.
The ankle throbbed like crazy for about a mile and then went numb. Gradually I returned to a seemingly normal gate.
"Maybe I dodged a bullet?" I thought optimistically until two miles later my right knee started hurting and two miles later my other knee. I tried not to over compensate for my ankle but I must have got a hitch in my giddy up. It gradually unraveled.
By 8 miles I had to stop and rub out my now swollen knee and my right hamstring which had gotten in on the act as well. By 11 miles I knew it was only a matter of time before I couldn't bend my knee or toe off with any power. The crazy thing is everything else felt great. An easy day, hitting all my splits no problem. I stopped at 12 and again at 13 to try and rub out my knee and my hamstring. At the 17 mile mark I knew was done. I used every mental trick in my book to get that far, but by the 17 mile mark my knee was so swollen I had no flex or power.
I walked and jogged to a point just past 19M where I knew Laura and the kids were waiting and was ready to drop out when both my kids said "we'll jog the last 7 miles with you!"
It was a gorgeous Fall day so why not. We walked and jogged it in. My youngest daughter (age 9) running four miles and my oldest daughter (age 11) finished with me. She thought it was pretty cool when the announcer started cheering for "the pacer" and the whole finish shoot went crazy for her.
I ended up at 4:13 on my sub 3:15 goal but who cares. The story line changed. The girls had a blast with everyone cheering them on. I have to say, I learned a lot today from my kids and from all the fans and volunteers who were still cheering and carrying on many hours into the day. My worst race turned out to be one of the best in the end. What an unexpected day.
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