16 Miles

Yesterday we ran 16 miles. 16 MILES!!! More than half the marathon distance. Jennifer and Lindsey ran it really strong. They seemed to have tons of energy, led the pack, and almost sprinted the last mile to the store.

A little different story for me. After the water stop at mile 12, my knee started killing me. It happened before when we ran 13 miles - at about the 11 mile mark, my left knee just starts to hurt. But I also learned you can run through the pain and it goes away (at least until the next water stop).

I was ready to throw in the towel at mile 12.5 (and run the 1.3 miles to my house - which means I wouldn't have gotten the full 16 miles in), when I thought about Monday, and how Lindsey and Jennifer would be pumped about the 16 miles and I was just a quitter, so I gritted my teeth, conciously told myself to ignore the pain, and ran up Swiss to catch our group. I did pretty well until the 14 mile water stop - at which time I literally hobbled up a hill, was able to run for another mile, then had to walk the last mile home. That sucked big time. But I did it! I "ran" 16 miles.

I went home, had my ice bath (which is killer by the way but I swear a miracle worker). By 5, I was feeling much better.

The knee is still pretty painful today. So I'm skipping tomorrow's 8-mile run. I'm convinced it's just an ITBN issue (which is that the muscle is weak and causes strain on the knee) - not an injury. So I'm hoping that by our next 16 mile run (which is on September 6th), I'll be fine. Cross your fingers.