Ok, so I have been off the blog for awhile. Between work, life and not feeling motivated to blog I just needed a break I guess.
So I will do my best to stay back for awhile. I have appreciated the support from others via messages even if I did not acknowledge it. Thanks to all and I will try and do better to reciprocate.
So on to the race report. I was not 100% sure what I could do but I figured a sub 23:00 was possible so that was my only goal. Well and I guess I wanted to try and win the masters category as well. The good news is that I accomplished both missions. As a bonus our family ended up going home with two turkeys and three pies.
Before the start Sasha asked if I wanted to run with him at about 5:30 pace. I was not too excited about that as I was not sure I would be up to 5:30 pace. However, after the gun I was just trying to relax and not go too fast and I was right in front of Sasha. I was worried I was going too fast but it felt pretty good. I kept telling myself to relax and try to slow down a little even though I felt good. Sasha was right with me still. We went through the first mile in 5:28 so right at the pace Sasha wanted me to run with him. He was tucked in right behind me and I figured he would go by me at any moment but I guess he was still a little sicker than he thought as he just stayed there. I still felt ok so I kept focusing on staying relaxed as best as possible and just try to hold the pace. The good news is me knee was not bothering me or at least I don't recall it hurting. We went through 2 miles in 11:05 so a 5:37 split. Not too bad but I was starting to feel it now. Sasha started to fall behind a little at this point and I knew he must not be feeling good. I tried to latch on to a runner right in front of me and just try and survive at this point. I was not feeling good so I was not aggressive enough and just sat with the guy in front of me. We went through mile three in 17:00 so a 5:55 split. This was a bit dissappointing as I knew I had slowed down but now I was a bit more concerned about not making my sub 23:00 goal. I passed the guy in front of me and tried to focus on catching the next guy that was a ways off. I caught him and passed with about 400 to go but then he passed me with 200 or so to go and I could not go with him or at least I did not feel like it at this point. I ended up with a 22:45 finish and a last mile split of 5:45 so I was able to pick it up by 10 seconds. Overall I am pretty pleased with the result. I have been doing about 30-40 miles a week tops and with no real fast stuff. The knee has been doing good so far. It feels different than the other kne but not in a painful I can't run kind of way. I think it may always be like that and if so I can live with it. It especially feels stiffer/different on the early morning cold weather runs lately.
I am happy to be back racing again even if it is not quite as fast as I was before. I think with time I can possibly get close to where I was before. We will see how things go this winter and spring and if all goes well maybe I will attempt a spring/summer marathon.
Again thanks for all of the support and sorry for being gone fo so long from the blog. For those that have had micro fracture surgery I am proof that a comeback can be made and hopefully I can keep proving that in the future. So at one point i did not have much hope but now 9 months after I started running again and about 16 months post surgery things are finally starting to look pretty good. | 