Quote Modify posted: 11/14/2010 at 3:47 PM
modified: 11/14/2010 at 6:54 PM

50k 6:35:19. Knee buckled at 14.5 miles.

Great weather. 40F at the start. 68 at the finish. 5.18 loop course. Loops 1 &2 right on pace of 10:13. Discard vest at the start of 3nd loop. Feeling good. Forcing myself not to pick up the pace. Remembering  2 laps is only 10 of 31 miles. Course was gently rolling inclines. Knee starting twitching at mile 8 but on real problem. Mile 12.25 knee just buckled for a second. Some  how I managed to pick the pace for the next two miles. Mile 14 the knee starting buckling on every decline . No matter how slight. 15 mile/ 3 loop in 2:41 x. Down hill for that point. Telling myself at this point to not DNF. Not working. Club member Wanda T. came out to support me. She run mile 20-25 with me. We even hit a 12:50 mile at one point. Compared to 14:00 miles I was doing. Wanda had to leave for a Hawks game. She gave me a bagel and  I decided to walk until a finished it or for about a mile. It was a long incline. 1 mile past the finish line I serious considered turning around and DNFing(27 mile mark). The only thing stopping me was explaining  to Wanda after running 5 miles with how I managed to not finish. Onward I trudged. The last 4 mile  I mainly walked.  Runners starting passing me at every mile. With about 1/2 mile to go and 1 last tunnel.  I look up after exiting a tunnel  and to my amazement I see the finish line. I have never bee so happy in 20+  years of running to see a finish line.  Tried to run but it was a no go. Walked the last 1/4mile in pure ecstasy. Plan to shadow box the medal and picture. This race will make getting  a PR easy.

Peachtree City 50k--- Darkside running club