After a decade of a heavily sedentary lifestyle I decided to get my life in order and take up running. These are my stories as I run farther and faster in my 30s than I ever have before.
Last night was the Christmas Party at Road Runner Sports. I got an invite both as having VIP membership as well as being part of the Chicago Running Bloggers. I thought some of my fellow bloggers were going so I made a mad rush home from work to make it on time. When I got there I checked in and got a raffle ticket. I then got another raffle ticket for playing guess how many Hershey Kisses were in a jar. I was given a thank you Xmas ornament and off I went.
I wandered around the store a bit waiting for others to arrive. It appears they were doing a fun run before the party and I hadn't realized it. I haven't run in awhile myself since I've been letting my body heal from various ailments so I wouldn't have gone even had I known about it. From what I heard they actually took a route to the Lincoln Park Zoo to see the lights.
Also while I was waiting I checked out the display that the Mizuno rep, Ryan, had set up and checked out the various shoes. I love my Wave Inspires 9 and was excited to finally see the 10s in person. Ryan loaded all the runners up with a bunch of Mizuno swag. The best item had to be the reflective vests. They will be perfect for running in the dark no matter the time of year and even have a small inside pocket for keys or ID. I also got a water bottle that opens on both ends and a clip on reflector with strobe light.
The swag
After some announcements were made and pictures taken the runners headed off. There were only a handful of people who stayed behind. I wandered around the store some more and then finally decided I wanted to try the Inspire 10s on. Yup, felt fantastic and had to get them. I was due for new shoes anyways. I also tried on a pair of trail shoes since I will probably need some for my various trail runs in 2014. I didn't wind up getting those and that turned into a wise decision later on. Since I bought Mizuno shoes, Ryan disappeared and came back with a Mizuno t-shirt for me which was kind of awesome. I also got a re-usable bag with the Kanji symbol for Run on it. Finally someone decided to break the ice and grab a beer so I followed suit. They had brews from Revolution and Lagunitas. There were also some wines and bubbly.
10th anniversary Inspires
When the runners got back they swooped in on the snacks and drinks. It sounds like they had a lot of fun out on their run. Soon there was the raffle drawing. The prizes were custom insoles, a pack of running socks, and a grand prize of free shoes from Ryan, the Mizuno rep. First there was a hyperactive little boy who won the jar of Kisses. My guess of 175 was way over the actual number of 139, but the boy had 140 so that was pretty impressive. We tried to get him to eat them all at once but the father wasn't having it. The numbers were called off for the insoles and the socks. Next up came the shoes... my numbers were being read off, I won! Ryan came over and gave me a big hug, he's friendly. He was just as excited as I was for me winning since I'm a Mizuno guy. He whipped out the catalog and was like I know you just got the Inspires, so you can get them in another color or any other pair of shoes. We can go crazy with this if you want. So after some thought I went with the Trail Ascend 8 which is based on the Elixir - a shoe I have worn previously - but made for the trails.
Ryan took down my information and I made sure that the shoes wouldn't ship before January 4th since I'm going out of town. He got my address, email, shoe order and size and everything. To top things off I had an e-mail from him first thing this morning saying it was nice meeting me and letting me know the order was all set and to follow up with him if there are any issues.
I was kind of sad that none of the other bloggers made it to the party, but I chatted with some other runners and Steph from RRS remembered me and my name from when I came for safety night. Maybe you guys should come next time and get some great beer and great swag :)
I've fallen completely off the wagon again. Its been more than 2 weeks since I last ran, and that was for pint night. First the holiday rush around Thanksgiving through me off so I missed a few days because of that and immediately afterwards I came down with a horrible case of the flu. Glad my nephews decided to share something with me. I was knocked down hard. I spent a day unable to move and barely eating more than a few crackers. I completely ached all over. Once I recovered from the flu, my weakened body decided it was time to throw in a sinus infection for good measure. So yeah that was a good 10 days lost to illness. On the plus side it did help keep the holiday weight off.
I'm feeling a lot better now, but am hesitant to go back to running. My leg muscles are all out of whack from spending so much time on my back and my knee has been aching like crazy. I've been trying to get some stretching in the last couple days and that has helped. The cold grasp of the recent weather has also kept me indoors. I don't need to head out into negative wind chills while recovering from a sinus infection. I don't have a gym membership either so that's out and I didn't feel like pulling the dreadmill out of storage. I may have found an alternate solution though. My own "personal trainer".
I managed to score an XBox One on Black Friday and was pleasantly surprised to find one of the built in features was a fitness program. Its free to use as long as you have a XBox Gold membership and includes all sorts of free workouts, plus more available for purchase. The application uses the Kinect 2.0 to track your movements and score your workout depending on how good your form is.
The camera has several different images available including heat sensing so it can actually tell if you are activating the correct muscles or not. The camera can even take your pulse for you.
There are tons of workouts available from Jillian Michaels to P90X to Insanity. The app keeps track of your fitness scores and lets you compare to others if you like. There are even achievements you can earn for workouts completed.
This was the boost I needed to get my motivation on track. The application turns working out into a game with a score and everything. The workouts are tough too. I did one of the 10 minute ab workouts and I was dying halfway in. I know my core needs work, but it made me feel like I've never used the muscles before. Has anyone else used video games for fitness? How do you motivate yourself to get back on track after a doldrum?
Yesterday night I returned from my trip to Las Vegas. Of course I took all day today to recover since that's what happens after 5 days in Sin City... the rest.. well that stays in Vegas. Alright, fine I will tell you about the race experience.
Chris and I took the same flight out of Chicago on Saturday morning and landed in Las Vegas around 8AM local time. We took the shuttle over to the hotel, Treasure Island, and dropped our bags off. We made it our first mission to get caffeine. Chris got a coffee and I got a coke. Our 3rd party member, Vijay, arrived a little over an hour later and off we went to the expo to pick up our race packets. The timing couldn't have been better since the expo had just opened when we got there. There was a long line of people filtering in, but we didn't have our confirmation sheets so we had to fill some out before we could get our packets. By the time we had done this the line was done. We picked up our bibs, shirts, and bags and meandered through the expo. This was the first big one Chris has been to so I wanted him to get the full experience. Afterwards we walked back to the hotel. The walk round trip was about 3 miles.... we would wind up doing a lot of walking the first day and a half even though we never ventured further than 1 hotel over. We tried to keep things easy on the first day so we caught a show next door at the Mirage on Saturday night. We saw the Beatles/Cirque Du Soleil - Love and it was the most amazing show I have seen yet in Vegas.
Daytime view from our room
Night time view from our room
Shirt Design
On race day we had slept in slightly then wandered across the street and got brunch at the Palazzo at Grand Luxe Cafe. I know we have one in Chicago, but I've only been to the one in Vegas. After lunch and a brief tour of the canal shops we went back to the hotel to veg out for an hour before heading down to the race start. Here is one mistake I won't make again - we walked down to the start of the race, which was about 3+ miles away. It took us an hour and 15 minutes to get there with a restroom break on the way. We arrived about 30 minutes before the race began. My legs were already tired before this walk, but this was the nail in the coffin. I already knew this wasn't going to be my best race. I have been trying to recover from IT Band Syndrome/Runner's Knee and had only run 3.5 miles in the 2 weeks before the race. To top things off I had fractured the tip of my left big toe just 3 weeks prior. All things considered I should have just dropped out of the race and no one would of thought any less of me. I couldn't do that though. My goal was to do 13 halfs in 2013 and the 13th might turn out to be the unlucky one.
No backing out now
After some announcements, a wedding ceremony, a pep talk from Kimmy Gibbler (Full House), and the national anthem we were finally off. I was in the 7th corral and took about 12 minutes for me to get to the start line. It was slow going and crowded at first. We made our way down and around the "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign. There was a photo opportunity but I declined. I just wanted to get done with the race and off my feet. Early going was slow and steady, just trying to stick with the crowd. I ran with a 4:00 hour marathon pace group for awhile. The dry air was getting to me so I made sure to get fluids at all the aid stations. Overall I was holding up pretty well though. It was nice heading down the strip. There were so many spectators out cheering all the runners on. Once we got towards downtown and did a couple miles off strip did things get strange. We ran down dark streets with periodic bursts of light from portable light posts erected just for the race. This wasn't a sketchy area at all. Once back to Fremont Street the energy came back. There was a burst of energy from runner's who had done the half of a half finishing that finished on Fremont to cheer us on. It also helped that there was a giant metallic praying mantis spewing giant flames up in the air. Soon we were back on Las Vegas Blvd and heading back towards the strip. The marathon runners continued down the canopied section of Fremont, which would of been awesome to run down.
It wasn't until mile 8 that my knee started to hint that there might be trouble, but it wasn't too bad. I made the decision that I wasn't going to stop to walk, I was going to run this thing since I had made it this far. By this point in the race the crowds had also thinned out. There were something around 30K registered half marathon runners, but only 20,566 had finished. I wonder where those 10K people went? Around mile 11 I had seen Vijay on the other side of the street heading north. He was in a much later corral so was only around mile 6. It was also around this time that I got to take my greatest race picture yet. I had not seen the photographer sitting in the road because I was behind 2 girls running abreast who dodged to the right at the last second. It was "Oh $H!T!" and a dodge to the left in order not to trample him, but he was a pro and captured the moment perfectly - as well as a runner behind me who decided to join in on the moment.
Oh, hello
I tried to push things a bit the last couple miles, but my body wasn't having any of it so I just tried to hang on. I finally made it to the finish line at the Mirage in 2:04:07. This was no where near my best time, but was also no where near my worst so I'm calling the race a success. I was still feeling ok if a little sore and tired and slowly starting to stiffen. This was the longest finishing chute I've ever been down and took a good 15 minutes to walk through. I grabbed a space blanket, my medal, a water bottle, a gatorade bottle, an apple, a chocolate milk, and finally a beer. After that I had to fight the crowds to get back to the hotel. I stayed at the hotel just north of the finish line, yet it took about 45 minutes from finish until I got back to my room, where my knee proceeded to scream at me for the rest of the night and into the next day.
I rocked it
Gear Bag and Medal
Close Up of Glow in the Dark Medal
After the race I showered and stretched. I waited for Chris and Vijay to finish. Chris got back about an hour after I was done. Vijay wasn't too far behind him. I was actually hungry at this point. I had been messaging with Mo about meeting up, but Chris and I decided we weren't making it out of the hotel at this point and we definitely didn't want to fight the crowds again. We wound up going downstairs and having dinner at Kahunaville. I stayed up and gambled a little bit and Chris went to bed.
The day after the race we were all still a bit beat up. We went over to Paris for the Village Buffet since I had a Groupon and we refueled on delicious crepes and wine. We gambled a bit and then I learned Mo was nearby at Planet Hollywood so Chris and I went over to meet up with her for Remote Pint Night. We started things off classy by stopping in a convenience store and buying tall boys... This would turn into a late night of fun.
Stop 1: Planet Hollywood - tall boys from ABC Store.
2: MGM - Gambled on the old fashioned horse race machine and got free beers
3: Aria - Todd English Pub for happy hour
4: Cosmo - cocktails at the Chandelier bar.
5: 4 Queens - dinner and microbrew at Magnolias
6: Main Street Station - More gambling
7: Binions - even more gambling
8: The D - quick tour of the refurb job done here
We finally took a bus back to the Strip where a couple of over-served young women were fighting with one guy and tried to get another to pull his pants down on the bus. It was a fun night and the alcohol took some of the soreness away. I'd pay for it the next morning, but hey, that's waking up in Vegas!
Oh and I met Teller from Penn and Teller at the airport on the way home!
I've had a bit of an unlucky last month and a half of running. I struggled in the taper period for the Chicago Marathon and my taper was more of a cliff. I did get through the marathon without any major issues, but didn't get close to my goal time. I foolishly went out hard in a half marathon just a week after the marathon to try and see if I could PR and lift my spirits a bit. Instead I wound up walking half the race while dealing with hip pain. After the race the knee pain set in and a week later I would be diagnosed with IT Band Syndrome. Still being hard headed I went out for a trail run because I figured it would be easier on the joints and I didn't want to miss my friend's first race. I wore a brace on the knee and all was going well until I stubbed the toe on a tree root 3 separate times.
After the trail run and the toe stubbing I finally slowed down and took it easy, mostly since I could barely walk, let alone run. I don't do well with not running though and have had a bit of a problem with binge eating in the last month. As a result I've gained about 7 lbs. I did get myself into a routine of doing leg exercises and stretches, but not much else. The weekend after the trail run I did manage to get myself out on a short jog to test out the knee brace and things went relatively well. This helped me think that not all was lost. I went for another short run at Blogger night at Roadrunner Sports and was completely pain free which was a huge boost in confidence in how things were progressing.
It was on Friday that I heard the dreaded words that I really didn't want to hear. I was overdue for an annual exam so I went to the doctor's on Wednesday. I had them check out the toe while I was in there since I still had some pain. I showed the doc my day after picture and she said she wanted me to get an X-Ray just to be sure. I went and got that X-Ray on Thursday and then got the call on Friday. The diagnosis is "fracture of the distal aspect of the distal first phalanx, obliquely oriented. This is essentially nondisplaced . There is adjacent soft tissue swelling." In layman's terms, the tip of my left big toe is cracked. It takes 6 weeks for a fractured toe to heal.
Now here is my quandary - I've run immediately after breaking the toe - even sprinting on it to finish the trail run, and I've run twice more since -albeit short runs, but they didn't seem to have any affect on the toe. Do I keep up with the occasional short run to keep some sort of athletic base going? I'd hate to see what would happen if I don't let myself run for another month. And don't suggest swimming. I hate swimming. The other thing is I have the Rock and Roll Last Vegas Half Marathon coming up on Sunday. I don't think there is any way I'm going to let myself skip that. I may wind up walking half of it, but there's enough booze in the city to overpower any toe pain I might have once I finish. I will have to test out shoes since some seem to cause more issues than others. I won't be able to fully toe off during my stride. I can jog in place up on my forefeet without any issues, but something with more flexing, like pushing off during lunges doesn't feel too good. Luckily after this race I will have 8 weeks until my next race, which is plenty to recover. Luckily that one is just a 10K.
I know I'm being a bit hard headed, but once I get into a routine I don't like to stop. I was doing so well this year with consistency in my running and the results showed in all aspects of my life. I've been rather fortunate during all my training and never really faced any injury. I started running just over 2 years ago and other than some tendinitis from overdoing it when I first started out I've been doing well ever since. I've had occasional shin splints and a couple hamstring strains, but nothing that has completely sidelined me. I just really don't want to let myself fall off the wagon since that's what happened to me in high school. I hurt my knee my senior year of track before the season even began. I tried to get myself back together, but couldn't get it healed to where I could run and wound up sitting out the rest of the season. I would eventually see a specialist who recommended surgery. I finally got that surgery before my 3rd year of college. I tried getting back into running that year, but woke up sick the following day... wound up with complications from impacted wisdom teeth, unlucky timing... and didn't try running again until 8 years later. Let's hope I'm back on track in 8 weeks instead of 8 years this time.
My time after the marathon hasn't been fun. I took a week off and then managed to injure myself on my first run back. That is probably my own fault for trying to do too much too soon, so live and learn. Now it feels like I'm reliving the taper madness because of how little running I'm doing.
Since the marathon I've now run a grand total of 4 times for a total of 22 miles. Before the marathon that would of been a slow/easy week for me let alone a nearly a month. I'm trying to take things in stride though. I don't want to get to the point where I knock myself out of running for months. I realize I have some time until I would need to do another training cycle, and even that isn't necessary at this point if I re-arrange my plans. I'm not committed to any longer races next year until Soldier Field 10 miler at the end of May. I would like to do a spring Marathon and possibly even take a stab at the Lakefront 50K - but am hesitant to register for anything until I start feeling better.
So what is wrong with me? I have Runner's Knee - that fun catch all phrase for knee pain. It can also be referred to as patellofemoral syndrome or iliotibial band syndrome. In simpler terms I have an imbalance in my muscles that is causing extra strain around the knee and in turn is causing inflammation and pain. I also have pain in the tensor fascia latae (or TFL) which is a muscle in the front part of the hip that connects to the IT band. According to Wikipedia the muscle is responsible for assisting the gluteus maximus in supporting the knee in a position of extension.
So what do I do now? I've been given a number of exercises to help strengthen my hip muscles. This in turn should help restore the balance and stop the twisting at the knee causing the inflammation. The exercises make me look a bit like Jane Fonda or Suzanne Sommers with the leg lifts and clam shells. I'm also doing quite a bit of stretching and having some personal time with the foam roller.
Unfortunately I don't have the same outfit to do my exercises
Hopefully soon enough I'll be able to ease back into running. I got a patella brace for when I do to in order to help the knee stay properly aligned. I've already done a short run with it to test things out and all worked out. Unfortunately I can't run much more than 10 minutes without something acting up so I'll keep things brief until I can handle more. I just don't want to go completely stir crazy. I'll probably also spend more time on the stationary bike this winter.
Alright I'm cheating and doubling up on the recaps since I did not one but two 5K races this weekend. The plan was to test out my knee before the weekend to see if I could actually run, but I never got a chance to do that. I'd been resting, icing, taking NSAIDs, and doing lots of stretching leading into the weekend to take care of soreness I was experiencing. I had been relatively pain-free heading into the weekend so I felt a little better about things, but was going to run cautiously just in case.
I did packet pick up for Pumpkins in the Park at Fleet Feet on Friday. It was a quick and painless pick up and I was out in no time flat. I had forgotten my CTA pass so I wound up walking home. In doing so I happened to catch all the emergency vehicles heading towards a 3-alarm fire occurring in Wrigleyville. Nothing like seeing tons of billowing smoke in the direction of your apartment and thinking to yourself - Did I turn the oven off after lunch? Once I got closer I could see that the smoke was coming from further down the street. Turns out a hookah bar and Roadhouse 66 went up in flames. When I got home I checked out the no frills packet. The shirt was black long sleeve with a nice logo. Probably not a good idea to run in this shirt at night.
On Saturday I took it easy most of the day before finally heading to the race site. I took a nice easy jog from my apartment to warm up a bit. The knee wasn't happy, but everything was tolerable. I was still determined to run and find out how things were really going. I wandered around a bit before my friends finally showed up. After talking a bit we headed to the start corrals. I lined up with the 8:00 min/mile pace group knowing that I would be going a bit slower. After the national anthem we were off. I felt great at the start - no pain at all. I was even running around a 7:45 pace - which is no where near top 5K speed for me, but was at least a strong 10K speed. We wound around Lincoln Park up towards Diversey before turning back. Around the 2 mile mark as I went down the underpass at Fullerton I felt a sharp pain in my knee and it felt a bit like it wanted to give way. I slowed my pace quite a bit from this point. The sharp pain didn't endure, but the knee was getting sore again. I started getting passed by a lot of runners, but at this point it was just about getting to the finish. I was too stubborn to start walking for such a short race and being a mile from the finish. I eventually made it to the final turn and found it in myself to sprint to the finish. I wound up with a 24:51 which is my slowest 5K time since Firefly in September, 2012 - but I made it.
After the race I headed over to the massage tent to inquire if they did injury screenings - and they did, score! I had to wait though since the physical therapist had ran the race herself and was getting refreshed. Once she came over and we started talking about what was going on with my knee she suspected that I had patellofemoral pain syndrome aka Runner's knee. Those were not words I wanted to hear. After a few quick tests, it was confirmed. She gave me a recommendation for treatment, a doctor to see, and some exercises to take care of the muscles causing the issue - weak hips. I suspect fatigue from the marathon, etc. probably contributed to bad form and my issues are just compounding now. After getting the news I met up with my friends again and headed to Twin Anchors for some tasty ribs.
I awoke Sunday morning and started prepping for Muddy Monk's Thriller in Schiller Trail 5K. I was a little stiff so I knew extra stretching and warm up would be needed. I didn't want to back out of things since I was the driver for Chris and his brother Jim who was running his first ever race after I'd been trying to convince him to run one for months. Soon Chris showed up and we drove over to get his brother and off we went. Thankfully Schiller is just down Irving Park Rd so it wasn't a very long drive. We arrived, got our packets with bright yellow shirts (these will be awesome for night running), and went back to the car to prep and hang out a bit. We were a bit early so we chilled and observed people in their costumes. About 25 minutes before race time we started warming up and stretching out. This was my first test of the knee brace I was trying out. Dr Google said that knee braces with a patella window could help with tracking of the patella and aid in runner's knee. Luckily I happened to have a brace from back in my high school track days. The warm up run wasn't promising, but I was going to go with it anyways knowing that the trails are softer than pavement and I would line up in a spot where I could run slow.
Soon it became time to line up and so we did. Jim, Chris, and I stuck together somewhere near the middle. Art made some announcements, put on Thriller, and sounded the air horn. The beginning of the race was a bit crowded and slow. The early single track made things a little difficult, but soon hit a spot of wider trail. At this point Jim takes off up the side to get around some of the slower runners. I tried to keep up with him while being careful of the knee. Things are actually going pretty well and I'm doing alright. I soon find myself picking up the pace and leaving Jim and Chris behind. I wasn't flying or anything, but just running a nice, comfortable up-tempo pace. Soon I started to feel a bit of soreness in the hip like I felt at Monster Dash. I didn't let it phase me this time though, it wasn't nearly as bad and once again it was a short race. My knee was holding up just fine and wasn't causing any discomfort. There was a drawback to wearing the knee brace though- the one I had was cumbersome and not meant for running- well not trail running anyways. I wasn't getting the lift of my feet that I normally would. About 2 miles in I stubbed my toe hard on a tree root and went crashing down on my left side. I wasn't really hurt - just more of a "did that really just happen?" kind of feeling. The guy behind me stopped to check on me and helped me get up. A quick inventory check showed that I was fine, but my toe stung a bit from where it made impact. No big deal I was still good to go. Not long after I hit another tree root with the same toe. I stumbled but stayed upright. Pain shot through my toe and I winced big time. I kept going, but now the toe was very tender and I had to be very careful with it. Not long after I came to a spot where you had to dodge under a tree branch and over tree roots. There was a walker in front and he let the guy in front of me around him and I thought he was going to let me by as well, but instead he crossed into my path causing me to adjust - and yes I stubbed my toe in the same spot yet again. This time it was blinding pain and then some temporary numbness. I knew I did some serious damage to the toe, but just wanted to finish. I hobbled the rest of the course, slowed by a toe that I couldn't put weight on. Once we reached the clearing for the finish line I saw Jim fly past me. I tried to speed up to catch him, but knew I couldn't hit those speeds with the condition I was in. Instead I tried to keep pace with Chris as he also sped up. We managed to cross the finish line at exactly the same time.
After we crossed we got our Thriller pint glasses and a free Finch's beer. I chose the Fascist Pig Red Ale and the brothers chose Secret Stache Stout. We chilled for a bit before deciding to get in line for food. I told Chris and Jim about my mishaps. They said that I had gotten pretty far ahead of them during the race and they didn't see my fall. Jim said he could see why Chris and I like racing so much. He's in for next year's race. After Jim and I got our hot dogs - they ran out of veggie before Chris could get his - we headed back home. Once I got home I finally got my shoes and socks off to see the damage done.
My toe looks more like a plum than anything. There's really not much I can do other than rest and ice. Even if it is broken, the doctor won't do anything unless its a compound fracture. I just hope it heals enough to run Rock and Roll Vegas in 3 weeks.
This was my second year running Monster Dash. It is part of a series of races put on by Team Ortho here in Chicago as well as a few other cities. My experience with the race last year was so so and I thought I would give them another chance to prove themselves. I had actually ordered a shirt from them last year that I have yet to receive. They did send me another running jacket which costs more than the shirt, but a duplicate of something I already have so I gave the jacket to a friend. I'll be honest, this half was more about squeezing in the 13 halfs this year and wasn't something that I would need to travel for.
I had actually done packet pick up for this race long ago. They allowed pick up during the expo for the Chicago Half Marathon. I went over to the booth at the expo with Jennifer and killed 2 birds with 1 stone. I also wound up signing up for Polar Dash that day so Team Ortho will get a 3rd chance to prove themselves. The date for Polar Dash has actually already been moved and now falls on my birthday. Who loves winter racing on their birthday? Anyways the swag for Team Ortho races is always pretty cool and this year they gave out hoodies that ran a little big.
Oops, hobbit feet in the photo
I was feeling a bit unsure of the race right after the marathon because let's face it - I was pretty sore. I knew I was moving around a lot better after the marathon than some people, but that's no excuse to jump back into racing right away. I also made the wise decision to get my first ever massage from a licensed therapist Friday morning. It hurt like hell getting it since some of my muscles were so stiff, but I felt so much better afterward. This may have been my undoing come race day.
So Sunday morning I get up at 6AM and prep to catch a 7:30AM bus. The morning is going fine and I step outside into the frigid weather. I get to the bus stop to find out its delayed and try to keep myself warm for an extra 10 minutes. The bus arrives and I'm off. Jennifer gets on a few stops later. We get down to Grant Park and make the trek over to Arvey field. We met up with our friend Courtney and I do gear check and get ready for the start of the half. I decided to line up in front of the 8:30 pace marker, but behind the 1:50 pace group. I was still feeling really good at this point and decided to see what I could do with it.
The race started and off we went. The start was pretty typical for this area - crowded and you have to dodge cracks in the sidewalk. This race had the added bonus of dodging costumed runners. I held steady for the first quarter mile before I let my legs do what they wanted. They carried me past the 1:50 pace group and before I knew it I was well under PR pace. I decided to slow down a bit, but I was still under pace when I passed the first mile. The 2nd mile was right at PR pace. The third mile I came back to earth a bit and slowed down a little. I also started to notice that my body wasn't really happy with how I started the race. The third mile was slightly slower but about where I should have been running the first half of the race. The 4th mile is where I fell apart. My hip started screaming at me. I stopped and tried to stretch it out before continuing on. Also the first aid station wasn't until well beyond the 3rd mile marker which wasn't nice for half.
I spent the next few miles running what I could before slowing down to walk and try and stretch my hip out. I noticed that when I ran I was doing really well, but then the pain would set back in and make things hard again. I wish I was better at adjusting my pace naturally to compensate. I eventually saw an aid station on the left that I would hit shortly after the turnaround and this became my marker for my next stop. I continued down for what seemed like forever and hit the sharp turnaround which didn't help with my diminishing mobility. I walked through the aid station and then walked off the path and hit the ground. I gave myself a really good stretch and watch as all the costumed runners went past. Once I felt good enough I got up and kept walking. I was going to finish this thing, I'm too stubborn not to. I soon got frustrated with walking and tried running again. The first attempt was just 1/4 of a mile. After walking again I went for 1/2 a mile. This was how the rest of the race went until I finally pushed myself to run nearly all of the last 1.5 miles. I was never more happy to finish a race. Even with all the issues and all the walking that I had done, it was not my slowest half. I collected my medal which was kind of absurd and doubles as a belt buckle.
I soon spotted Jennifer and Courtney and limped over to them. I collected my gear so Courtney could borrow my coat and then went and found a place to stretch. I was getting worse by them minute. After stretching we walked like what seemed like forever to catch a bus back to get brunch. The movement helped, but I stiffened up whenever we stopped. We got to the bus stop just as a bus pulled up. We took it back up to Lincoln Park for brunch and when I got off the bus I knew I was in trouble. My knee started hurting and I really hobbled into the restaurant. After brunch I walked the half mile back home. My knee really hurt a ton, but the movement helped once again. I got home, changed clothes, grabbed an ice pack and crashed on the couch. Later in the day I stretched a bit more and tried to figure out what was going on. Eventually I realized it was my IT band that was tightening up and tugging at my hip and knee. I used the foam roller which hurt like hell, but helped relieve some of the soreness and stiffness. I've been stretching the IT band every few hours since.
Now that it is a few days later I'm doing much better. I've stayed away from running, but did some light workout on a stationary bike last night. For something that nearly incapacitated me on Sunday, I feel like I should be ok to do some light running again in a few days. I'll just have to be careful this weekend since I'm running back to back 5Ks. I'm not going to concern myself with time. My friend Jim is running his very first ever race with me on Sunday for Muddy Monk's Thriller in Schiller so I want to make sure I'm there for him. I realize now the mistakes I had made with Monster Dash - 1. I shouldn't race so soon after a marathon and 2. If I do decide to race, don't go out at PR pace without having enough warm up, especially after not running for a week.
