Let me tell you about my run…

I can imagine that people hate hearing that from their runner friends. That is as bad as someone coming over to your house with their slide trays full and ready to show off. But since you are here and this is my place to write, you can either skip it or read it. You won’t offend me.

I had planned a 6 mile run with a bit extra planned if I felt good at the end. To start out, I did not feel good, so the extra milage would probably not happen. In fact 1 km into it and I was walking. My right knee had been giving me problems the last week or so. I walked for 3 or 4 minutes and then decided to start up again. I was determined to at least get 2 miles in, even if only walking.

I started up again and the pain in my knee was horrific. Worse than ever. Knowing that the pain is related to what is called “runner’s knee” (something that happens when your outer thigh muscles are stronger than your inner ones) I decided to try something different and run just on the toes of my feet instead of heel to toe. It hurt less. Then all of a sudden…*POP*! No, not a physical sound or even a feeling really. It just stopped hurting from one step to the next. I then started running heel to toe again and never felt the pain that I had just moments before for the rest of the run.

I ran about 50 minutes and the podcast I was listening to, Phedippidations, ended. Instead of listening to the next podcast in line, Genealogy Guys, I decided to look for some comedy on the iPod. Genealogy just did not seem like it was the thing to listen to on an hour run. I have some random comedy that I thought would take my mind off the fact that I had been running for an hour and had at least 10 more minutes to go. Big mistake. Ever try running and laughing so hard that you are crying? Does not work well.

Needless to say, between the walking at the beginning and the comedy at the end, my time was 3 minutes slower than the last time I ran that route. But, at least I did it. Had fun. And my knee is not hurting.

First Road Race

Flag Monument at the start of the race.Yesterday I ran my first road race. This was a 5 mile race along the beautiful Paseo de Montejo avenue in Mérida, México. I came in pretty much last. There was a 70 year old lady and a guy in a wheel chair that were behind me, but for all intents and purposes, I was the last one who was seriously running. I logged a time of 49 minutes and 42 seconds. Personally that was my best time for 5 miles. The winner in my division did it in less than 29 minutes. I never claimed to be fast, just persistent.

coolrunning.com

I have been hovering around the forums at coolrunning.com the last several days. This has been spawned by my brother’s desire to run in the Indy Mini Marathon on May 6th 2006. I have been training with him and ran my first 5 miles straight today. I ran it in 50 minutes and 20 seconds. That was my longest run. Previously I had only run 4 miles. I will be building up to 10 miles in the weeks leading up to race day. On race day I will run a full 13.1 miles.