The Miami Marathon was this morning. I woke up at 4:45 for this race. Normally this would make me exceptionally crabby, but I was quite pleased to get outside in the beautiful weather. Sure, it was dark, but it was 60 degrees at 5:45 when we started our walk to the start line.I had a very good race, though it could have been better. I finished in 5:13:58, a decent time for me. I’m very happy to have finished in under 5:15. The only caveat is that my legs and endurance were fine; I was slowed by a knee problem. I never have problems with my knees when I’m training. In Chicago last October, my right knee was very tight - it felt like the IT band and something else - but I thought that was because I was compensating for my stitches. However, this morning, my knee caught around mile 10. That’s never happened to me before, and I was *very* nervous that it was happening so early in the race. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to finish and briefly considered if I should finish with the half marathoners. I figured instead to go as long as I could and walk the rest.
It turns out that I didn’t need any walking and didn’t even need the long aid station walking breaks I took in Chicago this year. I basically just had to run a 12:30 or slower mile. My legs really wanted to go faster, and I tried to push it a couple times, but my knee caught every time which made me gasp and yelp (much to the scared astonishment of my running neighbors) and convinced me to slow down. I think if this hadn’t been an issue I may have been able to get down around 5 hours. I didn’t have any of the fuzzy headedness or other symptoms that typically hit me at the end of a marathon.
Sure, there was some pain, but that’s kind of the point. Overall, I really enjoyed myself. The race was well organized, the weather was beautiful (60 degrees at the start, 75 and sunny by finish time), I felt pretty good, and I was very entertained. I credit my extensive CSI:Miami viewing with helping things seem more familiar.
The medals are excellent. I’ve included a picture I took with my phone here at the airport, but I’ll post better ones soon.
However, the best part is that MOM AND TOM were here! We had dinner, went grocery shopping, had the usual navagating misadventures, ate lunch at the Cheesecake factory, and had the same great time we always do at these races.
So, I’m looking forward to the break for the rest of this month and then taking it easy until May when I start up my training for the Chicago Marathon in October.
