Sunday, September 19, 2010

Feeling a Bit Better

I've been trying to take it easy the last week or so and recovery from my rough day at the Rochester Marathon.  I've been going to the gym and lifting weights.  I haven't run much, but I've used the elliptical and stationary bikes. 

Today I drove out to Newark to run with my friend that ran the Greenlakes 50k and the Rochester Marathon with me.  The plan was a nice and slow 8.5 miles with a few small hills. 

The run was very uneventful.  We kept it slow and chatted.  Around mile five my knee started getting uncomfortable, but not bad.  We plugged along until about mile 7.5 and started to walk as a cooldown.  The run was slow, but it felt good to do a few miles.  I'm going to take a few more days off before getting into training again.

Monday, September 13, 2010

2010 Rochester Marathon - Proves The Need For Recovery

Yesterday I got up bright and early and drove to Frontier Field for the 2010 Rochester Marathon.  The weather was absolutely perfect with temperatures in the 50s and a very light mist in the air.  It looked to be a good day.

As you know, I hadn't planned on running the marathon but a friend of mine requested that I run it with her.  She ran the Green Lakes 50k with me two weeks ago.  I hesitently agreed to run the marathon.

The first half of the race went pretty well.  We had planned on going slowly and finishing around 5 hours.  We hit the halfway mark at about 2:15.  Well ahead of pace, but certainly not breaking any records.  Shortly after this I started having some issues.  The outside of my knee started to really hurt.  Bad.

I continued to plug along before telling my friend several times to take off without me.  As expected she refused.  Around mile 20 I told her to take off because I was going to pull myself at the medical tent near mile 21.  She said she'd run that far with me and I told her that was silly, no sense slowing down on my account.  She took off and I slowed considerably.

I didn't pull out of the race.  It didn't hurt bad enough to quit, but I was certainly hobbled.  Around mile 24 I came accross a volunteer that I've talked to at numerous races.  When he asked "what are you doing way back here?" I could only answer "hurting."

I kept trucking along and eventually made it to the finish line.  I didn't even bother looking at my time as I knew it was horrendous.  But I finished.  Now I need to figure out what is up with my leg.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Registered for the 2010 Rochester Marathon

I have a feeling that this is going to be a mistake, but I just registered for the Rochester Marathon on this coming Sunday.  I'm not all that concerned about the distance, I'm sure I can complete it.  I'm mainly concerned about whether or not I am fully recovered from the 50k less than two weeks ago. 

Why did I sign up for the race? Because a friend asked me to run with her.  Someday I'll learn how to say "no" but it won't be today.