26.2 + Bum Knee = 13.1

So Sunday was the Phoenix Marathon and I was ready to go! I was so excited the last couple of days that my heart was beating a little faster than it probably should have but I was excited. This marathon is very different from the Tucson marathon, they have live music every mile and Jr. High school cheerleaders cheering you on. They also allow spectators the whole way through which was very encouraging to hear everyone cheer you on with signs and noise makers. It was great! I felt really good, I had a decent pace and I wasn't out of breath and I only stopped for a little bit to streatch or get a drink. I felt so much better than last year and I hadn't trained as much which I thought was weird but who cares keep going....then somewhere between mile 11 and 12 things took a turn for the worse. My right knee started to hurt, and at first I though just stretch and you'll be fine...then I had to sit down and stretch and try and rub my knee to see if that worked and it didn't I couldn't go more than a couple of feet without having to sit down!

Me and Runnin' Elvis before the run he said "Thank you, thank you very much." Hilarious!

I heard someone say that the medic was at the next mile post so I started to hobble my way there which took me almost 30 minutes!!!!! I had a very average pace of about 12 minute mile so you can see there was clearly a problem. I finally make it to the medic and by this point I'm pretty sure I wasn't going to be able to finish the marathon like this but I hadn't completely thrown in the towel yet I thought maybe it will get better with the ice she wrapped my knee with. The medic said I probably had tendenitis which I'm not exactly sure what that means but I guess there are several different things this could mean from inflamation and pain all the way to surgery. And then I remembered that just 2 days earlier my knee was hurting because I went bowling, yes I hurt my knee bowling that's so lame!

Any how, they wrapped my knee and said good luck basically. I tried to walk it very slow and take it easy but by the time I actually made it to the medic and sat with them I had wasted a ton of time which is not good when you are trying to finish the marathon by 5 hours (which is also not good but I just wanted to finish ;) I knew I wasn't able to finish and I wasn't about to try, I wasn't there to hurt my knee permanently it just wasn't worth it. I make it to the next medic and by this point I am in tears trying to find a chair to sit down. It was over, but I didn't even realize through my tears that I had just crossed the half way mark at 13.1.

I'm really glad that I crashed and burned where I did because if I wasn't able to finish the half marathon I was going to be really pissed off and yes Mom I used the P word and I ment it :) At least I didn't get sun burned this time too.

I heard that day from one of the volunteers that every race is a learning experience and they are all different, ah so wise. I havn't quite figured out the balance of training etc because last race I trained consitently but I didn't go on very long runs and I felt so crappy during the run but I finished...and this race I didn't train nearly as much but I felt alot stronger of a runner and I was only able to do the half marathon. I'll figure it out, I will probably do a couple more but I don't think my knees like me right now. Take a look at the photos it's kind of funny how I have so much energy and excitement in the beginning and you can see where I'm not feeling all that great.

This guy ran the marathon bare foot!!!!!!!