I honestly didn’t even want to write a race-recap of this race. It was actually pretty difficult for me to sit down on my butt and write that bad boy out. Here I am typing away and pretending like I enjoyed the race in the slightest. I don’t know why I didn’t, maybe it was that I felt like utter crap but you know…we all have those days and it was only a damn 5k. Now that we have that rant out of the way-I’ve put it in my past and I’m ready to move on.
Okay it won’t too whiney I swear.
As some of you may or may not know-I went down to visit the lovely Laura this weekend. I had honestly one best times ever. Minus we should have taken more photos.
Anyways-for those of you who don’t know, I’ve been having some phantom knee pain and it really has me worried. My COACH seems to think it will go away soon, but I’m so paranoid about it. I’m honestly super afraid that I’ve picked up the injury my brother has that prevents him from running. Let me just take a second to ramble away about my symptoms (for my clarity if nothing else):
- 1. it comes and goes when I’m running.
- 2. It feels almost like underneath the top of my knee cap, possibly the tendon I don’t know.
- 3. It doesn’t hurt arcing/ellipticaling…basically anything besides running.
- 4. It hurts when I bend my knee in that part of my stride that kicks back.
Okay anyways.
Now back to the race (which I ran as more of a moderate tempo). I didn’t get much sleep the night before because I had a killer migraine. Somehow, I posted a blog about my new blog URL (please look at that timestamp sometime if you are bored…because it wasn’t scheduled and I was UP at that hour).
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Race Day:
I enjoyed a lovely morning with Laura doing some Pilates. Incase you don’t know, she is getting her Pilates certification and is fantastic! Core whorin’ typical jive. My knee felt fine at this point, I thought the foam rolling/pilates combo had finally kicked whatever was going on for good. It really felt like a normal knee. As you will obviously guess, that wasn’t the case during the race (not that it was bad or anything).
The race started at 3pm (yes 3pm). Laura and I got there at 2:30pm and did a 1 mile warmup. It was much more crowded than we had assumed. There were probably about 100 people or so, mostly all locals. Whenever I race somewhere, I always put the further of the two distances-either NY or VA. That race I was Hollie from NY.
When the race started, I decided I would stick with the top 10 (most of the high school track stars) and see where it took me. I felt okay for the first 5 feet but immediately I felt a rock in my stomach…and thought to myself oh one of those races eh. No matter.
The first mile was short-in fact it said I reached it at 5:20. It was more or less 5:50. That was a good mile for me, I don’t really know the exact time but it is probably close to my “mile PR”. That was when the rock ie: coffee creamer baby really started kicking.
Then it was all downhill…well literally uphill. My stomach was just not feeling this race and felt rather heavy. My knee wasn’t in a lot of pain but didn’t feel injury free. I was somewhat grumpy by the heavy linebacker drafting off me. (Props to him though-he finished under 20!).
High school boys were high school boys. They mostly died around mile 1-minus the fellas that were clearly high school XC runners. I ended up staying in 10th place the entire race until the last second when one didn’t want to be “out girled” so be it. His friends gave him so much crap for outsprinting me.
I laughed.
After the race, he tried chatting me up and then realized when I said I was a senior…I meant in college. Our convo went something of this nature.
“Nice race there” (Blue is a boys color no?)
Oh thanks
Is that your PR?
Oh no-today was not my day for PRing.
Oh that suck-so what grade are you in?
I’m a senior.
Oh me too!!
A senior in college…
Oh really? You look so young!
Tell me that again in 10 years.
Adorbs.
I was super happy for my long lost twinnie Laura though who PRed and also took it as a tempo run. Anyone who can casually tell me that this is their PR without going into cardiac arrest at the last .01 has many more PRs in their future.
So to sum up this novel of a race recap type post. Not all races are your best and not all are meant to PR. I learned that maybe too much gas station coffee creamer played a part in this race but I wasn’t trying to go all out to begin with so I don’t even know why I’m being obnoxious. I’m not upset with this race (running doesn’t make me upset duh!), I just think I was hoping for a better time even though 2 months ago 20:08 at Footlocker South made me squeal with joy.
Question for you:
- Have you ever had expectations for something that didn’t occur (racing or life in general) but the settlement wasn’t bad either?
- Have you ever had a knee injury?
I am bummed it wasn’t a better race for you. Maybe the hillbilly at the gas station jinxed your coffee. And boo on your stupid knee. I miss you. I’m allergic to you being gone.
Typical boyssss…..lol. NIce race girl!
Thanks-really not my best at all but that means a lot. 🙂
Ugh knee injuries plague me a few times a year. I just try to run every other day when they happen. Usually swimming doesn’t bother my knee so I do that occasionally.
Have not had a knee injury, and I hope you don’t either.
Sounds like you had a good race to me. That happened to me once, a high school XC kid passed me at the end not to get out chicked. I didn’t really care, the race was sponsored by his team anyway and I race for myself not just to beat other people.
Oh, and as soon as he beat me, it was really similar to your story… he asked if I was joining their girl’s XC team! Yeah I’m about 10 years too old for that lol.
I’ve had a lot of races that I thought I’d do better than I would. The only time I have gotten upset is when I set a time goal, because I’ll usually miss it by like 2 seconds and be pissed off, so I stopped setting time goals and I’m not disappointed anymore! I really hope this whole knee thing gets better. Mine is more of the side of the knee cap and hurts in the knee drive.
I am sorry your race was less than stellar for you girl… and I have definitely been here before. There have been races where I thought I was going to do brilliantly and they end up being the worst ever…. I am sure you learned something about yourself from this and will use it for next time 🙂
Sorry about the knee pangs too… feel better NOWWW
Just read the post about LOLZ that you mentioned…boy oh boy do i have a lot of bloggy catching up to do! I am so glad you had an awesome time with Laura! And I think that being hit on by high schoolers could be a nice ego booster hahahah ohhhh young boys!
your pain definitely sounds like an inflamed tendon…especially the kick back pain. it hurts when you run because you are propelling your body up and forward=a lot more stress on the knee than ellip/arc (because you aren’t moving in 2-planes like you are with running)…I don’t know if you were wanting any suggestions, but I’m a nerd about anything/everything rehab!…if I were you 🙂 I would take an ibuprofen before bed and with your breakfast…foam roll only at night…and ice 2x a day. As hard as it might be don’t run until the pain is dull (waiting 2 days?) you will NOT lose any of your running fitness by taking a down week…you will actually allow strength to return to your tired legs=a positive!
I am sending you fast healing vibes!! because even though the Arc-T is a blast, I know how sucky it is to know you “can’t” run. I know you will be back to your long run loving before the week is over!!
xoxo!
Injuries suck the life out of any racer. But it is crazy how athletes like us constantly up standards for what is a good performance, at least you realize this and don’t get down on yourself!