On Memorial Day, the husband and I ran the Owensboro Half Marathon. This was our second time to run this particular race and my only goal was to not finish last, like I did the first time I ran it. It's a small race of around 200 people with a time cap of 3 hours. The first time I ran it, I slacked on my training as I thought I would still be in good shape since I had just run a half marathon a month before. I was seriously wrong and I paid for it. I literally had the trailing police car following about 20ft behind me for the last 3 miles. It was embarrassing to say the least.
This year I continued with my training after my race in April doing a long run of at least 10 miles every weekend to stay in half marathon shape. My only worry was that I would be in Japan on business the entire week before the race. I wasn't sure if it would help or hurt. Plus, only having one full day of rest didn't seem like enough time to recover from jet lag.
The race started at 7am and it takes a good 45 minutes to get to Owensboro so we were up and going at 4:30am. Just what I wanted to do. Unfortunately, my body was still on Japan time. I was awake and felt fine, but the rest of my body was not functioning like a normal race morning. I won't go into the details but anyone who is a runner knows exactly what I'm talking about. It was warm, muggy and sunny at the start but luckily they changed the course this year which allowed for more shade and turns, which I like better than a bunch of straight roads. So the race starts and Trent decides to hang with me because he's not exactly feeling the best. We start out pretty slow thinking I want to hold back a little in case I want to speed up later. I felt really good until about mile 7. Once I found a port-a-potty at mile 8 all was well again. However, at mile 9 both knees were starting to hurt. Apparently the IT band issue in my right knee I got from my November marathon is never going to go away...it pretty much hates any run that is longer than 8-10 miles. The new thing was the pain in my left knee. I know I have a torn meniscus but it's never really bothered me when running. Imagine what it would feel like to run with a knife stabbing through the side of your knee every time your foot lands...then imagine that feeling on both knees for about 4 miles. It sucks!!! However, unlike many people that would have called it quits so they don't injure themselves further, I continued to run and finished the race in 2:24:30. Trent stayed with me the whole time, even when he almost puked at mile 12.
I've never quit a race and I'm incredibly stubborn when it comes to running. Because of that I finished the race, but I could hardly walk the rest of the day and limped around for more than a week after. Since Owensboro I ran the 8 miler Indian/Celina Challenge trail race. I started to break down around mile 6 and again I pushed through and finished the race in 1:38:45. It was a really fun race and I look forward to completing the half next year.
Up next is one of my favorite races of the year...the Laufenfest 5K in Haubstadt. It's a relatively flat course and the turnout is really good considering they give out free unlimited beer after the race. Anyone who doesn't want a cold keg beer after a hot race is just plain crazy!
