Boston or bust

On Saturday I ran the St. George Marathon. I had a great time. The picture of me running is at mile 23. I was still feeling strong. I'm pretty proud of that. I was worried about my knee since two weeks earlier my IT band gave out. After several trips to the physical therapist and only a couple runs I was worried about the pain being too intense to finish. It hurt at 1.4 miles every run. Hans, under the direction of the PT, taped my knee. I wore my band. I loaded up on ibuprofen. I stressed about which pace group to start with. My mind was trying to tell me that I couldn't run 26.2 miles fast. I listened and started with the slower group. After 2 miles, I thought - Hey, I'm feeling good. This feels slow. So I tried to catch the faster pace group. At mile 3 my knee started to hurt. Really bad. So I took another very large dose of ibuprofen and decided that if it still hurt at mile 10 I would stop. At mile 5, I thought - I'm going to have to stop at 10...it hurts. It feels like someone is stabbing a knife into the side of my knee. I'm not exaggerating. But then the race started to go uphill. Very uphill. From 7-12, in fact, it was mostly uphill. My knee doesn't hurt when I run uphill. So by mile 10, I told myself I could make it to 15. At mile 15 I ran to the aid station where a nice volunteer quickly rubbed my IT band with bengay. He did it fast. Then I just focused on my knee burning from bengay until mile 17 where I did it again. By now I only had 9 miles left. I decided to go for it. I felt great. I ran fast. I did not get passed by a single person from mile 12-26.2 but I passed a lot of people. I like passing people. It's good for my head. At 21 miles I saw my parents. They took my fuel belt from me and my mom poured water on me. This race was hot. In fact, it was the hottest start temperature they've ever had for the race. At mile 23 I saw my family. I was able to smile and wave. And from mile 23 on I had people cheering me on. I was feeling pretty darn awesome. Then I hit the wall at mile 25. The last 1.2 miles felt like torture, but I finished. 3:32. That's an 8:06 pace. I think that is incredible all on its own, but especially considering the heat and my knee. I about fell over at the finish line. I ate a popsicle and watched people pass out and get wheeled out on stretchers to ambulances. It feels good to be surrounded by 7,400 other like minded people. I was grateful to still be relatively okay. I did feel like I was going to throw up for about 2 full days after the race, but luckily that has passed. So, overall, I finished 50th in my age group and 156th for women, which puts me in the top 6% of the race. Now I want to run the Boston marathon. I ran fast enough to qualify. I just hope my knee holds up. It is Wednesday today and I am still limping around. The race is in April. I can't believe that I am actually excited to run another 26.2 miles. It's the 4 months of training that doesn't sound appealing. I love race day.