Hurt 2010

Rex and I had trained for months for this race. We ran in the night, the rain, the cold, and occasionally windy days that could scare you off the trails if you let the falling branches and trees become a personal thing. So it was a bit of a dissapointment to have the race fall during a period of extraordinarily dry weather. So dry there was no mud on the trails! Actually dust in places. You could step anywhere and get traction. Very atypical. But that is the weather for you.

Rex and I went out faster than we had planned. We tried to go slow, but it was hard. Our paces were reflecting the 5:30 training runs. We had to throtle back. It was hard. We actually walked the last three miles to the nature center because we were so fast. The first loop was a 6:02. The weather was cool in the morning and then becamse much hotter, but there was a nice trade wind and that cooled down the mountains a bit.

The second loop was about a 6:15, the third as a 7:10 or so. And then things went haywire and
Rex became ill, and I had to head out on my own. I was hoping he'd get it together and be able to catch up, but it didn't happen. Luckely Jan was pacing Rex and she could see to his problems and try and help him out. But the damage was done, and we were not running together.

I went on to run a 7:30 or something and then something in the Sixes. I ran the last loop out of Nature Center, as I am accostomed to due in most of my finishes, despite the fact that I was not on the bubble this year. I managed to catch up with about six other runners, and pass them. It cost me a very tender pair of knees, not to mention a lot of people wondering what I was trying to prove.

I'm pretty beat up. A few falls left welts and scars on my shinns. I have a lot of blisters from the hard running in the last loop. Most of all my knees hurt quite a bit.

I ran a 24:24 or some number close to that. It cost me too much to be cute. Hopefully it will not create any permanent injury. I'm writing this the evening of the finish. I am a zombie..whose knees hurt.