Look, Mom wrote a race report
"A half marathon under my belt! And as always it comes with a story.
3 weeks ago I ran 8 miles, the furthest I've ever ran. I then bashed my knee against the bed footboard, slipped on the ice in Ohio, missed a step and jammed said knee at my Uncle Joes when he had to show me his current golf ball count (10,314), and twisted, stepped wrong and all the evils that come when you're training for an event and are trying not to further screw up an injured knee.
Still limping around back in AZ, I make an appointment with a sports medicine doctor. So lets go back to this last week. Saturday night... airplane germs catch up with me. Sneezy.. sniffy.. achey I just want to sleep all day crap. Hey laying around all day - that'll help heal my knee right?
Wednesday I drag myself off the couch to see knee Doctor. He took Xrays. He twisted my leg in ways I didn't even know my leg twisted trying to replicate the pain, which he didn't. I hop off the table...that pain!!! I'm barely walking and his diagnosis? Arthritis. Arthritis? I've had arthritis in my knees since I was 30.
He said I've entered a new level of arthritic pain and I'll just have to adjust.
Okay 3 days out, I'm sick, my knee is jacked and I have to concede that I'm pretty much done for the half marathon.
2 days out, I call whining to coach Lisa McCombs. Lisa says, "describe that pain again." "I bet your IT band has locked your knee up." Could we not have figured this out last week? I Google Active Release Therapy and I have an appointment that afternoon.
See that word "Release"? That's exactly what he did. OMG. He said come back tomorrow too.
1 day out . Second ART treatment. I can walk!! Some residual pain from having a locked up knee for 10 days. But now I have to consider what am I going to do for the race? I buy a suggested knee brace and figure if I can hike 15 miles up and down mountains with a 30 pound backpack and blistered feet, I can limp through a 13.1 mile race. Plus I walked a 10K Thanksgiving morning... time to move the bar.
Alarm is set for 3.20 am race day morning. Phoenix Marathon is a linear race with 3 start points, 10K, half marathon and a full marathon all starting at 6.30. They request that one be on the bus to the various starts by 5am. It's a long time to wait, sitting in the dark under heaters for a race to start.
My plan: walk the first half, see how I feel. Mile 6, the arch for the 10K start and I'm passed by the first marathonist. Yes he has ran 20 miles to my 6. But I'm feeling okay. No knee twinges.. should I run? Probably not but I did anyway. The whole 10k. I really don't run much faster than I walk. I finished my first half marathon in 3:20. As I said. I am slow. And I did not finish last in my age group. But 3 days ago I was convinced that there was no race in store for me.
So as I write this I'm feeling pretty damned proud of myself Thanks to Laura Hyneman for suggesting this and all the other friends that raced. I wish I could have seen you guys finish and Jennifer Siart podium, but that would have required me to be faster than you all and that's not ever going to happen...lol!
So DeVine gals what's next in our grand training adventure to the Vineman half Ironman?"