UVM my first DNF :( The ITB flared at mile 7-8. I'm pretty sad and have cried a bunch. It is what it is. *** the details for posterity ;) This race was my sil, Barbara's first half. I talked her into it :) Kristine (David and Barbara's sister) drove in from CA to run it too, as well as Kylee( Barb, David and Kristine's brothers wife) also came to run it with us. Barbara is from Bakersfield, CA and Kylee is from No. SLC. We had a GREAT time Friday with our families at the pool and then chilled all evening eating a spaghetti dinner and popsicles :) We left the house at 3:45 to meet the buses. We stood in line FOREVER, but made it to the start in plenty of time for a POP stop and to drop our bags. Kylee was shooting for her first sub 2. Kristine was planning on and easy run and a sub 2 as well. Barb just wanted to finish and then under 2:45 would be great. Barb did a ~2:43. Kristine did a ~1:52 and Kylee did ~ a 1:55. The weather was PERFECT!!! It really could not have been a better day!!.. well almost ;) I started out running with Barbara.. mistake #1. I should have done exactly as I had trained and walked for the first 4 min then started the running. I didn't start out too fast. I also did a 2 run 1 walk and that was a mistake as well. Live and learn and cry a lot. Mile 1 was not my favorite, shin splint pain in both legs, which is unusual for me. After mile one I told Barbara to go on and I needed to do my own thing. Back to 2:2 walk run. This worked GREAT and while I am not a quick walker, I was able to run 8mm for my running and it felt great. Mistake #2 was an 8 minute wait for a pop. I should have just held out to mile 8, no lines there. Now this is where I cant remember very clearly. Everything was fine until right as we come out of the canyon. I started to notice twinges here and there. This is also where I started crying really hard. I was so upset by the the twinges that I bawled, which embarrassed me as now there were tons of spectators. I pulled my visor down as low as I could and my sun glasses were on. Tears were streaming and I was trying to hold back the sobs. I kept the 2:2 run walk thing until my right knee totally gave way, so I just walked. I prayed that David would come and guess what, he did. Just before Will's Pit Stop he drove by screaming and waving heading up the canyon past me. I finally got brave and quit crying long enough to ask a random spectator if she had a phone. A nice lady gave my her phone and I called David to tell him to flip around and come get me. It was right by mile nine and the thought of crying my way for 4 more miles, walking and heart broken, just made me cry harder. Russ and his kids were in the car so I couldn't cry so I ate 3 donuts. Donuts work well for stopping crying ;) We drove back to the start to see Barbara finish. I missed it because I went back to the car to get my race number so I could pick up my drop bag. I must have walked too close to the finish line, because I have a finish time for the 1/2. I'll email Hyrum to get that deleted on monday. I have thought about whether I should have just walked it in or not, and I really think the dnf was best. I would have been alone and crying all those 4 miles and just fell apart at the finish. I suppose if someone had been with me to talk some sense to me, maybe it could have been different, but all I wanted to do was to go home and cry in my room. A strange side note. Last monday when we were down in St George (in Kim and Tom's AWESOME condo), I noticed that my right foot was swollen on top. No pain, just swollen. By Friday night it was still swollen and painful to touch from the ankle to the toes. It still is swollen and painful to touch, walking does not hurt it. I am going to the doc this week and see what is up with it. Who knows and at this point, WHO CARES!!! ;D I haven't cried too many times today. My hips are killing me (bum, mostly) and my ankles are achy. I am sure the hard concrete and the downhill were not my friends for this event. Live and learn and take a salt tab to replace all the salt lost from crying ;)
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