Long version: I was a little nervous about this race because I’ve been dealing with a case of ITBS in my left knee over the past few weeks, and it hurts pretty badly when I run longer distances or run really hard. But, I had registered for the race a few months ago (prior to straining my ITB) and our hotel was already paid for, so I decided to do the race anyhow. Was that smart? Probably not, but I'm still learning. We spent a couple of days in Colorado prior to the race to get acclimated to the higher elevation and also visited some family and friends and enjoyed a small family vacation in downtown Denver.
The couple of days prior to the race, I made sure to stay super hydrated since we were up in the mountains, and also got in a lot of walking and some good swimming at the hotel pool, and felt really good up to the race with no major ills. Note, the knee does not hurt, unless I run. I slept really good the night before the race (oddly enough) and woke up promptly at 6am when the hotel wakeup service called. I ate my usual breakfast of a bagel, peanut butter, banana, and some Powerade, then dressed and walked the 1 mile to the race start.
I did some light jogging around the block to warm up near the starting line, and did some stretching to loosen up my muscles. Since I was particularly nervous about my knee and how well it would hold up, I had to use the porta potties not once, but twice to take a pee, finishing the second time about 3 minutes before the race started. Yikes, that was close! ha The weather was perfect, with sunny blue skies and temps around 60, along with light winds. It was a gorgeous day! The race started soon enough and we were running. My knee immediately began to hurt within the first few blocks, and I knew at that point that it was going to be a very, very long run. :(
My wife and daughter were able to meet me along the course at about 1 mile, and I was so thankful to see them. I waved and kept running. My motto lately has been, “Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must, but never give up,” a quote by Dean Karnazes, and I just kept repeating this over and over in my head as the miles ticked off and the pain continued in my left knee. I ran mostly, but did stop to walk occasionally every mile or two, and mainly to stretch my left hamstring, which really seemed to help with the pain in my knee. I did have to stop at about mile 5 to use the porta potty again, but otherwise, the remainder of the run was OK and really fun, other than my knee just ached non-stop. The knee pain wasn’t severe, just a nagging dull ache that kept my pace pretty slow overall.
The course started in downtown Denver and continued for about 4 miles amongst the sky scrapers, then along the South Platte River, then past Elitch Gardens, past the Denver Broncos stadium, then to and around Sloan’s Lake (which was awesome with snow-capped mountain vistas in distance), then back into downtown Denver. Overall, it was a beautiful run!
I was also initially worried how the higher elevation would affect me since I’m a flatlander from Omaha, but I wasn’t really running hard enough to even be significantly winded. Unfortunately, what was slowing me down was my stupid knee and the pain it was causing. The last mile of the race was especially painful as I kind of hobbled toward the finish line, but I did cross it with a big smile on my face, as I again saw my wife and daughter cheering me on about 500 feet before entering the finisher’s chute. Ironically enough, as I saw them, the song “Taking Care of Business” by Bachman Turner Overdrive came onto my Ipod, which really pumped me up too to get me to the finish line.
I had a finish time 2:24:11 (well, well within the back of the pack), but you know what, I was still really happy with that. While it’s 24 minutes off my PR pace, that’s OK! I never expected a PR in this race because of the altitude and my ITBS, and I’m just super happy I was able to finish it, and despite the pain in my knee, I had an awesome time and am so glad that I persevered. The medal was also very cool, and certainly worth the effort put into the race!
After munching on a bagel, a banana, and drinking both a bottle of water and Gatorade after the race, we walked the 1 mile back to our hotel, I enjoyed a super hot shower and changed clothes, and then we hit the Interstate for an 8-hour car ride home to Omaha. Ugh. It was also lunchtime, so we decided to stop at Ihop for a much-deserved celebration meal. I enjoyed a huge stack of chocolate chocolate-chip pancakes (yes, double chocolate), 2 scrambled eggs, hash browns, bacon, and about 4 cups of coffee. I then proceeded to eat the rest of my wife’s breakfast, including her left over pancake, another egg, and also polished off the remainder of my daughter’s hamburger and French Fries. In other words, I ate like a pig, and it felt good with no guilt!
At that point, I let my wife do the driving so I could stretch out in the back seat and iced my knee all the way home. We did stop every once in awhile so I could stretch, and keep the legs moving. When we got to Omaha, my knee felt great, and I have no major aches and pains anywhere else in my body. Yeah!
And now, marathon training possibly begins next week for a fall marathon in either September, October or November. I need to let my knee rest a bit, but I definitely feel confident that after 3 half marathons under my belt, I’m ready to try a full. We’ll see. Race on!
This is a photo of me about 1 mile into the race. Since it was Flag Day today, I decided to wear a flag running outfit, with a flag visor, a stars and stripes singlet, and flag running shorts and flag socks. I got a ton of crowd support which was cool! Note the knee brace on my left knee, which helped, but certainly didn't eliminate the pain.
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