The Half Nelson It Is Then

Sorry. I don’t know why I feel the need to apologize. It is not like I didn’t give it a try. I gave it probably more of a try than I should have considering the injury and pain I have been dealing with. I guess I feel like I am letting some people down (including, and perhaps primarily, myself) and any time I think I may be disappointing someone, I feel the need to say sorry. The mind was willing but the body was not…

If you didn’t guess from that first paragraph or from the blog title, (either you haven’t been following my blog or you are really slow today) I’ve failed in my plan to prepare for and run the Salt Lake City Marathon on April 18th. During Saturday’s scheduled 14 mile run from my PLAN, I had to cut it short due to severe knee pain around mile 6. I slowed to an 11:30 pace and "crawled" home completing only 10 miles. Although some would be happy with that pace, and I would have loved to have run that pace at the end of last year’s marathon, the pain would have slowed me even further had I pushed out to 14 (let alone 26.2) miles.

So, as I stated in my last post, if I couldn’t follow that plan there really is no way I could properly prepare for a full marathon in just over a month from now. And considering the shape my knees are in, it would probably do more harm than good anyway.

So what does this mean? Today I officially signed up for the Half Marathon. I still won’t be gunning for my 1:40:18 PR at that distance but I am cautiously optimistic (not that my optimism has helped me of late…) that my knees will hold together for at least a 2 hour goal. I am still VERY EXCITED to visit my family and run in this event.

I also finally scheduled my visit to the Physical Therapist. After my doctor visit (and the drugs they gave me) the pain really went away. That, combined with a hectic work schedule, kept me from going to the PT that the doctor had referred me to. Well, this last Saturday was the last straw. My knees are recovering much more quickly following my runs now but I want to learn what I need to do to stop the in-run pain.

One last affirmation… Salt Lake City has not defeated me, my knees did. In the words of MacArthur "I shall return!" or Mr Schwarzenegger if you prefer "I’ll be back!" I hereby promise to run the full marathon in Salt Lake City someday.