It was going great and then....

5430 Long Course. Half Iron distance. August 10, 2008 Race recap.

This was to be my big race for the year. Training wasn't as consistent as in the past but I was feeling good and strong. I was rested up pretty good even though I didn't sleep well on saturday night.

I did Master's Swim class this year - never in the past. My swimming was smoother, faster, and stronger. It showed because I PR'd my swim by my watch. I need to pay attention to where the timing mats are because the chip time in my various races have never matched very well with my watch times.

I finally must have figured out my transitions too. I checked my past 1/2 IM times and my T1 has been 3-3:30. I transitioned in 1:14 yesterday - now that's some serious improvement.
The bike went okay except I had ridden the course and had in my mind what speed I would ride certain sections. Its a great plan until your bike computer batteries die 2 miles into the ride. I had no idea how fast I was moving. I just went by RPE, which is fine if you have it planned that way. Kevin R passed me at the U-turn on the first lap. Which is fine since I knew I could run him down.

I came in to T2 nice and easy. Slipped out of my shoes, dismounted perfectly, ran right to my rack, and then just stared for a few seconds. It was like my brain shut off and I didn't know what I was supposed to do. Shake it off Jonny. Did my quick switch and got out on the run. My old T2 times were 2:20-2:30. Chip times says I smoked out of there in 1:00!!

I settled into a nice quick turnover pace to start my run. Mile 1-4 averaged 8:40s. I love it! I was feeling good, nutrition was right on, running my race. Lap one was about 57 minutes. I caught Kevin as I expeced as we were got out to the road for lap 2. I just wanted to hold a pace of 9 minute miles or under and I would PR the run. And then...

Mile 8 gives you an uphill on the back side of the Res. I was moving up the road when I must have twisted just right and it felt like a knife got shoved up under my kneecap. I tried to run through it for a little bit and just had to back off and walk. I've felt this before but its been a long time.

5-6 years ago I had knee surgery to clean up the cartilage in my left knee. They took about 70% of it out. I was scared at first because I was just getting into shape (I went from 255 down to 210 over the past year and a half). It felt great after the surgery. I ran 4 miles about 3 weeks after and was able to build from there. All my triathlons, marathons, adventure racing, ironman have been done since then. I had very intermittent pain in my right knee and knew there was a little bit of damage floating around but its been manageable. Until now.

I was 5 mile from the finish and knew I wasn't making my goal time anymore. I walked the aid stations and tried to jog to the next one. That worked for one station. Then it was half and half.
Kevin got me back with a mile to go. At the last hill I wanted to look decent coming in so I blocked out the pain and settled in to a hobble jog to the end. 5:44:15.

I'll do the ice and ibuprofen for a day or so and try to find a doctor for an MRI. Got to get this fixed this fall so I can get back on that horse.