Notes
Even though I am not ready to race with my fitness level and knee problem, I decided to get my feet wet because Eleni was racing and I wanted to share the experience with her and got involved with the running scene that I dearly miss.
I couldn't ask for a better re-introduction to racing. Eleni requested and got her magical number '77', so I knew she would be inspired to run great... and she did!
If my knee didn't act up, I felt I would run about 7:30 pace. The fastest I have run since starting again was one mile at 7:12. Most of my training runs were about 8:00 pace, or just under.
I tried not to go out too fast as I knew I would just die, but with the first mile slightly downhill, I was faster than planned - 7:02. I knew if I tried to run faster, I would be toast, so I was content to stay at this effort.
By mile 3 with hills, I was slowing down. The knee pain was there, but manageable. I was prepared to stop if necessary.
Because the knee is worse on downhills, I charged up the hills and recovered on the downs.
About 3.5 miles I started getting my "2nd Wind", the pace felt easier and even the knee felt better, so i gradually picked up the pace, running a 6:26 last mile.
Evgenia was on the course on her bike, so it was great to have her support for me and her mom. Next we will get Evgenia because she said after the race, with training she thinks she can run 47 minutes.
I feel blessed I was able to share this with my sweetie. It's been 2.5 years since we raced together, (and also my last race!)