How I pushed through.
As many of you know, this was the race that I've been waiting for for over a year. Every training run and every race I've done up till this point was in preparation for this half marathon. So you can imagine my disappointment when I started to get horrendous knee pain 4 weeks before. My mom agreed to run this race with me and we agreed that we would stick together.
We're not as fast as Lacey, so my mom and I started in corral "D" and agreed to meet up with her somewhere at the finish line!
Even though my IT band was feeling pretty tight during the 10K, I was able to get through with a run/walk/run and was still happy with our time that we finished in. I was hoping that the same would be true for this race, but I was in pain before we even completed the first mile. I stopped at the first medic tent and slapped on some Bio Freeze with the hopes that would help. As a matter of fact, I stopped at every medical tent along the course and reapplied the Bio Freeze. Even though I was in pain, I was able to push through it and I was very happy with our time at the 5K mark.
We had a glorious time running through Magic Kingdom and I almost forgot about my pain!
I heard a lot of remarks about how bad the bottle neck would be while running through the castle and that we would probably have to walk so I was pleasantly surprised when we got to the castle and had plenty of room to run right through!
By the time we left Magic Kingdom we were still making pretty good time at the 10K mark. I thought that we might still actually meet our goal time that I had for us in the back of my mind.
I was able to continue to push through till mile 8.5 ( right after the Clif Bar station) and then it was all down hill after there. My pace drastically slowed down and I had to walk all of mile 9. I felt bad because I knew my mom had it in her to keep going but she held back and walked with me. From mile 10 on, I tried to run a little bit more.
As we did the final loop around Epcot heading to the finish line, I told my mom that we were going to sprint to the finish. I gave it all I had and we finished strong!
I think I gave a little too much though because after I received my medal my leg tightened up and I could not move it. I wanted to hobble over to the medic tent but they made me sit in a wheel chair. When I sat in the chair, the medical volunteer was trying to talk to me and I couldn't even speak to her because when I sat down it was like I couldn't breathe. They thought I was nauseous and that I was going to throw up and they gave me a bag. I was not sick, I was not nauseous , and I was not going to puke. I just felt like I had just lost my breath. I felt a bit silly that everyone was over reacting, but it's nice to know that they are all prepared for the worst. When I got inside the tent, I had my blood pressure taken and was given some advil and then a doctor came over to check out my leg. He wrapped it up pretty tight and sent me over to the massage tent. Which was good because I had planned on getting a message anyway.
The photographer caught us as I was hobbling out of the medic tent!
I was finally able to make my way over to the Glass Slipper Challenge line and receive my medal for completing both races!
Will I do this race again? My final thoughts and comments on this 13.1.
Lots of people commented how hot and humid the race was. In all honesty the heat and humidity did not bother me one bit. Maybe if I lived in a climate where it is often humid I would mind it more but to me it was just warm and that felt good.
As we were running under the underpass by the Contemporary ( Where the guy with the Mickey hands was) I couldn't breath.
I almost thought I was going to hyperventilate but then after I ran out from under there I instantly felt better ( I don't know if this had something to do with the humidity or if it was just how the air wasn't circulating). Did anyone else feel like that?
I felt the course it's self was an easy one. The inclines did not bother me one bit. However, I did feel the course was very narrow in most spots. Even on the roads that were flat, I felt they were uneven. Because I was running and then slowing down, I tried to stay to the side of the road. But some of them were so uneven that I knew with my knee problem it would be dangerous to continue to run there. I apologize to those people who had to run around me.
I was so worried about what I was going to do about water stops. It ended up that I did carry my own hand held bottle and stopped at 2 or 3 water stops to fill it up.
I worried about the bathroom stops as well. I am SO proud of myself for not having to stop at all!
Running with my mom put me at ease. I know she could have done much better if she was running on her own, but it was nice having her with me. We didn't listen to our I-pods at all. We talked most of the time and had fun stopping for pictures! I am so proud of her!
I actually felt good this whole race, I mean I definitely had the endurance to keep going if only my knee had felt better. The 13.1 miles really did fly by quickly. I had a feeling it would!
During my training runs, I was finishing 13.1 in 2:20 at a pretty comfortable pace. So considering this was a Disney race and there would be a crowd and I would be stopping for pictures, I had a goal of finishing in 2:30.
But then I had to deal with this whole knee pain so I knew 2:30 wasn't going to happen. So now my "B" goal was to finish in less than 3:00. About mile 4 we got passed by the 2:15 pace group. By mile 10 we were still on target, but then shortly after that we got passed by the 2:30 pacers. I thought maybe we could still finish in 2:45. It ended up we finished in 2:40.
I will absolutely do this race again and cross my fingers that my knees are in better condition next time because I really believe that I can do much better. I am happy with my time considering my injury and how many stops we made, but I know I have it in me to do a bit better.
Have you ever suffered an injury during a race and had to "Push through" it? Please tell me about it?
Did you run PHM? What did you think of it?
