This is hard to write.... I am in pain and I am extremely depressed. I was doing just fine until my heel flared-up between mile 22 and 23. I was in 11th place overall and averaging a 6:40 pace for the entire marathon at mile 22. I think I originally tweaked my heel 10 days ago doing some downhill mile repeats. It hurt a bit the next morning and would hurt a little at the start of each run and then be fine within a mile or so. At the start of the marathon I felt it a little and then it went away before the first mile marker so I thought I was fine. I was holding a good pace and had picked-off 2 runners between mile 21 and 22 when it flared-up. It brought me to a dead stop and I had to hop on my right foot just to slow down. I tried to stretch it but nothing worked. I basically had to find a way to half-hop, half jog to the finish. If this would have happened earlier I would have taken the DNF. I was winning my age group by over 10 minutes....I still ended up 2nd. You will see by my mile splits how slow I came in. The day started good......now I can't even walk. Here are my splits: 1. 6:37 (some uphill) 2. 6:18 3. 6:29 4. 6:28 5. 6:45 (some uphill again) 6. 6:23 7. 6:23 8. 6:23 9. 6:31 10. 6:28 11. 6:30 12. 6:41 (some wierd turns this mile) 13. 6:38 Half Split 1:25:44 14. 6:33 15. 6:49 (on the trail now) 16. 6:52 17. 6:51 18. 6:50 19. 7:04 20. 7:12 (fighting a gut-ache from my last gel) 21. 7:01 (feeling better) 22. 7:00 (passed 2 runners...last good mile) 23. 9:05 24. 9:36 25. 10:23 26. 11:29 Basically I can hop/hobble a 10-11 minute mile to finish a marathon. I was easily on a 2:55-2:56 pace. What I really need right now is a nice slow recovery run to help clear my head and put this behind me. It will probably be days until this can happen. I am not a happy person.
| 