After 2 weeks of sitting on the sidelines injured I was saved by a miracle product called biofreeze. I was actually able to run Surf City !
I have heard so many wonderful things about Surf City that I was really excited to run it. I was also really worried about running since I had only actually been pain free fro about 5 days. Not to mention I had exactly 2 run days in 3 weeks. I kept the faith that I had trained hard and that I have ran pretty much non- stop for a year so my body would be fine with only running 2 days out of a 3 week time period.
I was sick with nerves and worry for two days leading up to my race. I kept thinking about all the things that could wrong with my run and thought seriously about not running at all a few times.
I decided that no matter what I was going to run even if it meant that would have to drag my leg across the finish line. That is me up above hydrating before my race and next to me is my friend Jackie from running club she was in a little suprised by some of the outfits people wear to run in. lol
The race started off good and I felt great ! At mile 3 we made a turn onto some hills. Let me tell you that they called these rolling hills. lol They are not rolling hills they are actual hills and I saw people dropping off like flies all around me. I was worried it would be too much strain my my newly healed knee/leg and I was right. At mile 4 I felt a weird tingle and by mile5 my knew was blown and I my leg locked up.
At this point I pulled over to the side of PCH and texted my boyfriend that I was in a lot of pain but was going to keep going. I had my ROAD ID on do I figured I would be ok :)
On mile 6 I had to stop and slather my knee in biofreeze and walk some. Here is when things got weird. Walking was horribly painful and hard but running even at a slow 12:20 pace was not. I run barefoot style so I strike with either my mid-foot or the ball of my foot. So I figured when I walked I was doing what was natural and was striking with my heal and it was putting too much pressure on my knee and barefoot running removes most the pressure from the knee. I found a weird limping running motion and just kept going. I had to make a several stops along the way and cried several times but finished in 12:40. That is 1/2 hour slower than my goal and 12:20 is 3 minutes slower than I actually run but I am proud of the fact that I finished !
I feel Tonka tough in the fact that I saw people giving up out there and I kept going in pain and through tears on one of the longest journeys of my life. The whole experience was amazing and really it was worth it. It gave me time to really look at what I was doing and what I need to do to improve. I am going to complete the Beach Cities Challenge this year and I have so many things change before I can do that. I really need to cross train more so that I hopefully stop getting injured.
My next race is May 5, 2013 which is the O.C Marathon and 2nd up for the Beach Cities Challenge. I think its going to be an amazing race and I am excited to see how much I can improve before then :)
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