Shamrock Half Marathon

So last weekend I ran the Yuengling Shamrock Half Marathon.  I was supposed to run the full marathon, but due to a wonky quad I dropped down to the half.  I think that was a very smart decision.

It was also my friend, Kristi's first full marathon!  She rocked it! 

  

She was all smiles as she crossed the finishline!  Way to go Kristi!

The morning of the half I was trying out some adhesive to help my KT Tape stick better. 

Where has this stuff been all of my life?  This stuff was awesome!  Normally my Kt Tape does not last more than a run. Many people find that they can keep the tape on for a few days and a few showers. Me, I'm lucky if it stays on for an entire run. Last run this is what the tape looked like. 

It loves to just peel off of me. I follow all of the KT rules like no lotion and use rubbing alcohol on the area prior to the tape. Still the tape hates me. Well this new adhesive works wonders. I put it on Sunday morning and it was still hanging tough on Tuesday. Thank you KT Tape! It actually could have stayed on longer, but I was done with it. 

So back to the morning of the race. I took off early to find parking and meet Kristi's friend Amy before the start.  We were both running the half and in the same corral. I found parking pretty easily. I was going to pay to park ar farm fresh but it was full so I headed to find some free off street parking. 

I parked and headed to bag check. I found Amy and we headed over to our corral to wait for the start. Last year a 16 year old girl died after crossing the finishline. This year her friends and family were back running for her. It was very moving to see them on course. 

Amy was run/walking so we agreed to meet up at the finish. I was secretly hoping for a pr. It was a fast flat course and my last pr came while marathon training. Soon we were off and I was feeling pretty good shooting for a pr. As I was headed through the wooded part of the run we hit a sort of incline. I'm not even sure I could call it a hill. I hate hills and I felt no hatred of this bump. I was laughing to myself because you could tell the va beach runners because they were complaining about the hill. 

I was feeling great.  My legs were feeling good, I wasn't feeling winded, mile seven was looking great for me. You know that great feeling couldn't stuck around for ever. My first leg pain came around mile 8.5. I slowed it down a bit thinking that would help. A mile later I knew today was not going to be a pr day.  Why leg, why?  My run/ walk started around mile ten. The one positive thing about slowing down was I got to enjoy an on course beer stop. I missed the earlier mimosas but I did have one shot of beer. I finished the half right around my average half marathon time. It looks like it just wasn't meant to be for this race. 

I found Amy at bag pick up. With no problem. 

The wind from the ocean was cold after the run. Luckily I had a finishers beach towel to wrap around me along with my bright finishers hat. We then headed to the beer tent to grab one of our four free beers and listen to some bands. 

Runners like to drink beer. Yuengling was a great sponsor of this race. The bands were great too!  

Even Elvis had a great time!  As a side note Elvis needs to not wear his leopard print under Roos when wearing his white Elvis jump suit. Just sayin'.  

We headed out of the tent around one to catch Kristi finish her first full!  She was a rock star!

Other than my leg not holding up this was an awesome race and I may end up attempting this one again next year. 

The long run that just won't end

Two weeks ago Jen and I headed out for a nice 19 mile run. It was a beautiful day. Temps were in the low 50's. It was perfect day to lace up the running shoes. I had my knee taped up and I was using this long run to see if I could complete the Shamrock full. This was the final test. I have not had a good long run yet. I was hoping this would be the day. I was hoping to see some rainbows and unicorns on the run. 

We started on the same running path that we have previously ran some long runs on. It was going to be an out and back run. I had some knee twinges at the beginning, but it didn't last. Come on unicorns! We headed out and it was a fine run up until around 12 miles then the knee started talking. Goodbye rainbows and unicorns. 

Jen was a good sport and walked the last 4-5 miles. It was a nice day to be out and about. I got 19 miles in just not all of the miles were running.  Ugh. What to do?

Tuesday was run club and I went out on the three mile run. I had a pretty good pace for 2 1/2 miles then I stopped for a stupid red light. 

I went from feeling great and suddenly I was a ninety year old woman hobbling across the street. I did my hobble type of run and then I had to stop for another red light. This light was worse than the previous. Doesn't look like a full is in my future. 

After that Tuesday I scheduled a dr appointment with an orthopedic. I wanted to make sure I wasn't messing up my leg or knee. I got in last Monday. I was pretty lucky to get an appointment so quickly. He assures me that it isn't my knee and I haven't torn anything. He thinks my quad is quitting on me and that is causing my other muscles to pipe up to prevent me from falling.  He also confirmed no full. He wants more shorter runs during the week and build up my long runs again. He also recommends sticking to a half or less.  

After my appointment I decided to bump down to the half.  I basically ran the half without issues for my last long run. I'm going to tape my knee again. This time I'm going to use the extra sticky spray since the Kt tape doesn't really stick that well to me. I ran twice this past week and felt pretty good. Im hoping it carries over to my race tomorrow.  I feel pretty good about tomorrow. I think it helps that I know what the issue is.  It also helps that I do not see snow while running too.  

Need to get past six miles

Last weekend Jen and I ventured out for a run. It has been awhile since we've ran long thanks to a crazy snowy February!  I was supposed to run 18 miles but I figured we could shoot for 12-15 miles. Jen was checking the local running paths to see which path would not kills with ice. Thankfully Run Washington put out a map of trail conditions so that made her job a bit easier. 

When we started out it was really cold. I was worried about my butt freezing off. For whatever reason my butt stayed toasty warm and didn't even have a chip in it. I think that must of been due to decreased winds because I know we have ran in slightly warmer temps and I had serious frozen butt syndrome (sfb for short).  

Who knew that wind could make or break a run!  I also had the perfect layers on for this run. Figures that I get layering in the winter down when we are pretty much done with single/teen temps. Anywhoo...we took off from Jen's and decided we'd aim for 12 miles and if we felt up to it we could tack on some extra miles once we made it back to Jen's place. Turned out to be a great decision. Around mile 6 my knee and quad were starting to kill me. I also am seriously questioning if I can finish my full marathon in March. Yikes!  Now the good news is there was no shooting pain like my last long run, just a lot of uncomfortable tightness. Once again I'm going to foam roll like a champ and see what I can do. We ended up doing 11 miles last week. Not very pretty but two good things came from the run.

1. I did not have s.f.b even though we were in the teens or twenties.

2.  No shooting pain up my leg and knee. Maybe my two weeks of rest helped some.

So this weekend we are going to head out for 19 miles (yikes!). This will be the test for the full. If I can get through this last long run then I should be fine for my marathon, if not I will think about not running or just doing the half, which is not how I wanted to spend that Sunday.