Addicted to Exercise

I hurt.

This morning we had the annual really long race that’s not quite the marathon. The sponsor has changed each of the last couple years, and this time it was the Austin Radiological Association putting on a twenty-miler down in San Marcos. I really miss the good ol’ RunTex 30K they used to have in Buda.

I got there plenty early and in time to join the group for a two-mile warm-up. That felt pretty good, and I did the warm-up drills before getting lined up.

My plan was pretty simple. I just wanted to start out like I did on my long run a couple weeks ago and pick up the pace as I went, ending up with about 15 miles at speed. For once, I really felt like my brain played on my team. It was like I had a soundtrack of positive thoughts going on a loop the whole time. Unfortunately, I just didn’t have the legs to do what I wanted to do. I felt all right for the first five miles or so when I was running easily, but once I started picking up the pace my legs felt pretty heavy. The course was really hilly, so it may have worn me out early more than I realized, but even by the half-way point I felt like I had to work too hard just to keep my turnover going.

I decided to just press on, and I made a game out of it. I would pick out the person in front of me and guess how long it would take me to overtake them. That kept me occupied for several miles. I had stopped looking at my splits because I knew I wasn’t doing what I wanted, but the fact that I kept picking people off felt good. That all changed a couple miles from the end, though. Somewhere around 17 or 18, we went up a steep hill, and it just sucked the life out of me. My hips were just killing me, and my feet hurt from running on really bad roads for the previous couple miles. I walked slowly through the water stop at 18, and between there and the end I had to stop a couple times to attempt to stretch out my legs. I did finish strong, though. Inside the last mile was a monster climb into the wind, and I was surprised to find myself passing people right and left. I was so happy to crest the hill and see the finish line. I ended up with 2:37:42 (7:53/mile). I lost a lot in those last couple miles, though. According to the official splits, I was averaging 7:38/mile through 25K.

I was in pretty bad shape in the finish area. My hips and feet were screaming, and I just could not find a way to stand or sit that didn’t bother them. I walked it off a little bit but mostly just sat around and stretched. It was more than an hour before I felt good enough to head out, and since I was already half-way to San Antonio I went the rest of the way to get in a visit with my sister.

As of tonight, my hips are mostly calmed down, but my feet really hurt. I think I re-aggravated the bottom of my left foot. It’s pretty tender, so I’m applying ice and doing everything I can in the hope that I can be back to running soon.

So I’m not sure what’s next. I guess that depends how my legs and feet feel. I had hoped to feel as good as I did a couple weeks ago, but I guess you can’t win ‘em all. This was a really hard course, and I’m happy with the way my brain was working. It just goes to show how important it is to have everything come together on the same day.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 7th, 2007 at 6:58 pm and is filed under Race Reports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.