Grinnell Games Half Marathon #6

While I can say that I’m beyond excited to have completed six half marathons so far this year, I can’t say this race was easy.  Despite great weather conditions (especially for June), my leg wasn’t physically in the best shape.  But I persevered and crossed the finish line at the Grinnell Games Half Marathon.

Pre-race I was nervous about
how my leg would hold up.

My hamstring flared up a couple weeks ago and the pain and discomfort is reminiscent of when I injured it last year.  I have been seeing a specialist to try and work out the problem.  We’re not quite sure if the hamstring is compensating for a weakness somewhere else or if it’s weak itself.  Regardless, it’s uncomfortable and disheartening.  I did everything I could up until the race (including some mild icing the morning of the race) and decided I could proceed to the start line.

It was a great morning with blue skies, sun and mild temperatures.  There was no wind at the start but it did pick up a little by mid race.  It was still a very nice day for a half marathon.  There was a 5k and half marathon event, both starting at 8 a.m.  The race course was mostly in town in Grinnell.  It was actually a two loop course, which has its pros and cons.  It’s more interesting to see 13 unique miles.  Mentally you can talk yourself into pushing harder on the second lap because you know it’s the last time through.

I had to push myself to finish
this race.

As the race got under way, my leg felt like it was already compensating to deal with the discomfort and whatever may be wrong inside.  I had to focus a lot of telling myself to keep an even pace and to keep moving forward.   I had to travel a small distance to the race and eat earlier than I normally would.  I knew it would be a gamble energy wise.  Despite the nice weather, it did feel a little warm and I ended up taking water or energy drink at every aid station after the first one (so around seven total).

Jason captured this moment at about
the six mile mark when I was
contemplating quitting the race.

As I made my way closer to completing lap one I seriously contemplated quitting.  My leg felt sore and tired.  I was (and am) concerned about injuring it to the point I can’t continue my half marathon journey.  If that happens, I still feel blessed that I have been able to come this far.  I want to make it to the end but I have to be smart about it too.  While I knew my leg felt sore, I did believe it was okay enough to continue.  More importantly, if this journey has to come to an end then I had to finish this one that I had already started.  I saw Jason near the end of lap one and he gave such encouraging words that I knew I had to keep going.  Even though I wanted to cry, I just pushed on.

I found a whole new level of myself
on the way to the finish.  I kicked
it out strong to beat a male
competitor coming up behind me.

The first mile or two of the second lap felt fine, probably because of the adrenaline.  I started fading a little and I felt my toes cramping, which I’ve never had happen.  I had to do a couple of 5-10 second stops (enough to walk and wiggle the toe and then start running again) but mostly I kept powering through.  I told myself I would walk the entire rest of the way if I had to but something inside told me to fight.  Sometimes you just have to work really hard to achieve what you want.  I really wanted to finish this race strong from within and I did that.

After I crossed the finish line, I had to fight tears in trying to explain to Jason how it went.  The rest of my race was fine – I had controlled breathing and everything else felt good.  It would have likely been deemed “a great race” by me if my leg wasn’t bothering me.  However, I will label it was a great race for different reasons outside of my usual definition.  This was a great race because I saw a mental toughness that I didn’t believe really existed.  It took heart and soul that I haven’t had to use to complete other races.  I would have crawled to the finish line in this race just to achieve what I had set out to do.  I’m not sure that much could have stopped me once I decided I was there to finish.

Post race I was tired, but certainly glad it was over
and that I had survived!

Even though the race was challenging, I still finished in the same window of time as some of my other races at just over 1:49.  I had not looked at my watch once because I didn’t care how fast or slow I was going.  That wasn’t the point of this particular race.  I just knew I had to keep putting one leg in front of the other.  I guess that determination equated to pushing at just about the same effort as other races.  I finished 26 out of 109 racers and was the seventh female to cross, so despite my challenges, I’m still proud of the finish overall.

I don’t know if my leg will be okay for the rest of the year or not.  While my running is surely an indirect influence on my hamstring, I think I know what directly may have caused it.  Trying to heal the imbalances opens up a whole potential range of other problems.  I’m going to continue working on managing the problem.  I’m confident I’ll keep pushing forward.  I’m not sure if I’ll know if I’ve pushed too hard until it’s too late but giving up now isn’t an option.  For now, the journey continues.  It’s been one crazy and super fun ride :)

Miss FitGab