St. Malachi 5 miler - March 14, 2009

My first "race" report of 2009! I can't really call it a race for me, because this was the first time in 3 months that I ran over 4 miles. After the 3 1/2 weeks of NO running in late Jan. and early Feb, I very slowly increased my running so I could avoid any knee problems. So far, so good. Anyhow, I arrived to the race early so I could help with set-up, but didn't really do much "helping" besides carring a table. My stomach wasn't very happy, either from the dinner the night before, getting up early, and / or nerves, but that's pretty normal for me these days. It was nice to hang out with some other CTCers before the race, and put a face to some of their names. Then I found my brother and sister-in-law who were running, too. We got to chat a bit, and then I spotted an old friend from HS, Eric Norton. I hadn't seen him since the fall of '93, so we were able to catch up some, too. Well, a few minutes before race time, we headed to the starting line. It was a cool morning, but there was beautiful sunshine, and it ended up being a great day to run. I was worried about not wearing enough warm clothes (I can never decide how many layers to wear on a cold day...), but I made a good choice with just my under armour and CTC tank top. The race itself was pretty uneventful for me. I was of course taking it easy, so even though mile one was downhill, I ran it in 9:20. Mile two took me 9:40. I didn't like crossing all the bridges with just metal grates across them. I should have headed over to the sidewalk like some others did! Mile 3 had a long gradual uphill, so I went around 9:58. The slight downhill on mile 4 gave me some confidence, plus I was feeling really good and warmed up, so I ran faster and had a 9:03. I was worried about the hill at the end, so I slowed up a bit and ran the last mile in about 9:59. My official time for the 5 miles was 48:00.41. Not close to a PR, but I was just happy that my knee didn't give up on me. :-) I didn't run at all yesterday, but I did go 3 miles today, and still feel okay. I'm going to keep doing my knee exercises, visiting the chiropractor, and building up my milage slowly. Hopefully that will keep me in good shape and on track for the 1/2 marathon in May. Before then, I might do the CTC Indoor Tri later this month and a 5k and the Hermes 10 miler next month.

I miss running

It has now been three weeks since my last run. All I have been doing is swimming, ab / core work, and physical therapy for my right knee. On the day of my last run my knee felt sore, especially when walking down the stairs, but when I got to the gym, I thought I'd give a few minutes of running a try. I felt fine while running, so I continued to run for half an hour, and then I jumped on a bike for another half an hour. When I began to head down the stairs to leave, I could barely handle the pain of each right step. So, for several days all I did was rest and ice. Eventually I was given some physical therapy exercises from some friends, and now I'm spending as much time as I can doing those. As of today, I feel fine going up and down the stairs here at home, but I'm scared to run and have the pain all come back. I'm not sure when to try running again. I'll probably start by seeing how some biking goes next week. My concern at the moment is being ready for the only race I've actually already signed up to do this year - the Cleveland 1/2 which is only 13 weeks away now. I kind of wish I hadn't been so eager to save money and sign up so early. Hopefully I can start training again soon and be ready to race!

Getting Started

Former race blogs used to be posted on MySpace, but I've decided to use this site to post all of my future training and race blogs.
So far I am only signed up to particpate in one race for 2009, The Cleveland 1/2 Marathon, but many more will be added to my calendar in the coming weeks.