I ran the Cellcom Green Bay half on Sunday and at a little more than half way through, I started having some pretty intense knee pain. I had been walking for about a mile, mostly uphill. I knew that down hill was coming and I'd be able to make up some time. As I started to run down hill, I saw my friend Christine. She told me I looked strong and at that point I felt strong, but little did she know I was experiencing a shooting pain in my left knee. I walked fine and it didn't hurt and every so often I would try to run. For about 3 seconds I felt fine, the next 3 it started to hurt and by the time 10 seconds passed, I couldn't bear to run any more.
Just before mile 9 I approached a medic tent. Ordinarily I try to suck it up and push through the pain, but I knew a knee was nothing to mess around with. I didn't know if I needed to stop, keep going or what. I asked them for advice on knee pain. I described what I was experiencing and when I got to the point where I said walking was fine but running.... they basically finished my statement : IT band.
I knew an IT band issue was nothing like a tear in my knee, so I kept going. I felt great and could walk fast pretty easily. I paced a half marathon at a 16 minute per mile pace before, so I could do this: finish with a respectable time. Which I did.
Last year my longest time was 3 hrs 45mins (I've never claimed to be fast) and the shortest time last year was 3 hrs 22 mins. This years half was 3 hrs 17 mins. And I walked 5 miles of it. And I experienced more pain than I ever have.
I was hoping to come close to a PR at around 2 hrs 50 mins. I totally could have done it it my knee/IT band hadn't given me issues. I am trying to not be too disappointed as this is something totally out of my control. In the past, it was my lack of training or lack of discipline. Not this year. I was ready.
I have a month until my next half, which was a really tough one for me last year, the Her Madison Half. I don't do well in the heat and humidity and last year we had rain/clouds/humidity/sun. For this race, I'll be good with a time as close to 3 hours as possible.
