Thursday, July 27, 2006

So much for 13.1

Well, I have been holding out hope of running this Sunday.

Our goal was to run the half marathon in San Francisco. On the way, my knee got messed up, Learner got heat exhaustion, and we got way off our training schedule. (That's a lot of "gots.") But I was still hoping to go out and see what I could do. I went to the gym two days ago and ran/walked (because of knee pain) four and a half miles. Not really long enough or fast enough to finish the half marathon in the (pretty generous) time limit. I didn't push myself to the absolute limit, of course. I had time constraints and I am being careful about my knee. I wasn't wearing my knee brace. But, still, it's pretty clear that it would be a large challenge to try to finish the 13.1 miles, and even more of a challenge to finish it within the time required. So that's one issue.

The bigger issue is this: we have something more important to do on Sunday now. Learner wants to visit his brother and it might be the last chance for a long time.

So this is it: the death of 13.1. But I think I am becoming a runner. I have never been a runner before, and I like it so much, I don't want to jeopardize my ability to run by pushing my knee injury into an even more serious problem. I think becoming a runner (of a few miles, a few times a week) is pretty cool, whether I can race this week or not.

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