Once again, I've been remiss in updating this blog. I had a wonderful time in Chicago with the Bull City Kitties, eating, drinking, and oh yeah, running a marathon. Here's a bit about that last part.
 |
| Me in the start corral! |
Sunday morning, I woke up with a stiff hip. Oh, my old friend, who are you doing this today? Going into the race, I was running once a week. Just the long run. Any more, and my hip acted up, or my left leg started to get sore. I assumed I may not be able to run the race, but figured I'd go anyway and see friends. I toed the line Sunday morning, assuming I would drop out at some point.
Well, the race went much better than I anticipated. I ticked through the first few miles much faster than planned, around 8:40 or so on average. The spectators were amazing, as were the bands and signs along the way.
Things went swimmingly until around mile 18 or so, when the inevitable lactic acid/fatigue combo hit. What can I expect when my longest long run was 16 miles? Oh well, I slowed a bit.
At mile 22, the hip really started screaming, and a slowed to a crawl. More accurately, I started tottering along. But at least I was still having fun. I finished in 4:13:38, pretty much my slowest finish. But, given my lackluster training due to nagging injury, I think it was a good showing. And I had fun!
 |
| Three ladies happy to be done with the race! |
I had a great day with friends, and set a PR in deep dish pizza eating! I took a bit of time off after the race, and came back slowly to running. The left leg just didn't feel right, and the right hip was a bit achey. More on that later...
 |
| Bull City Track Club at Lou Malnati's after eating our weight in pizza! |
