Cowboy Hazel

I spent my weekend up in Vermont running my first ever long distance relay race. Our team, NYC Running Chicks and a Few Dudes, ran the (approximately) 200 mile course in 26 hours, 29 minutes, and 53 seconds for a 16th place overall finish.

As you can imagine, I'm more than a little tired out after all that. So, this will be a quick recap, even though I could go on for pages about all the amazing people I met and cool things that I saw.

My first leg came at 5:00 Saturday evening. I had 6.7 miles, much of which was up a big hill. I took off quickly, getting the first 3 miles all under a 6:30 pace. And then the pain hit. It was incredibly sudden and incredibly intense. I tried so hard to keep running, but I just couldn't. I ended up walking down much of the giant hill that I had ran up, getting passed a couple times in the process. It was horrible. More than anything, I felt bad about letting the team down, especially since our times were much slower that first leg than what was anticipated and we were falling to the back of the pack. My overall pace was only 8:01/mile.

I hobbled back to the van, iced the knee, then kept stretching it out for the next few hours and worrying about how the next leg would go.

At 2:00 Sunday morning, I found out. It was amazing. I started quick, thinking that my knee would probably give out again and therefore trying to make up as much time as possible before it happened. But, the pain (although it was most definitely there) wasn't crippling this time. I'm not sure why – maybe it was the massive amount of Advil I took or maybe it was that I was already warmed up – but, in mile 4, instead of collapsing like I had the first leg, I flew down a hill with a 6:02 mile. I managed to pass 3 teams over the 5.7 miles, and finished with a 6:32 overall pace.

I iced my knee again and kept stretching, but my knee was still very sore. One of my teammates asked me just before I started how I felt. "Not good," was my answer. And it was certainly true. As soon as I started the third leg (around 10:00 AM), the pain escalated and I was forced to walk almost immediately. I did so for about a half mile, then started jogging and eventually running again. The pain never went away, but I was able to fight through it after that first walk and ended up finishing the 5.7 miles in a 7:04 pace.

After talking with some very knowledgeable runners up there about my knee, I'm almost certain that it is an IT Band issue. And, unfortunately, it seems to be a serious one. Now that the relay is over, I am in hardcore recovery mode. I bought The Stick and a foam roller today and am going to be using those, plus doing all those fancy IT Band stretches for a long time. Additionally, I'm going to be taking at least a couple weeks off running completely. The thought of not running for two weeks makes me very sad (not to mention apprehensive), but I want to get rid of this crap so that I can start my fall marathon training solid.

Of course, that puts a pretty big delay on the training and so Chicago is no longer going to be my goal race. I just don't have the time to get into the shape that I want to before it. So, I'll use it as a long training run as preparation for my sub-3 hour marathon in Philly. More on that later...

I'm sure some people (my mom included) think that I shouldn't have run this weekend on a bad knee, but I don't regret it at all. I had one of the best weekends I've had in a very long time, met a bunch of really cool people, and got to get out of the city and breathe real air for a bit. I'm already looking forward to next year's relay(s) and the chance to run them injury free.