I only got in a single practice run in the past two weeks, so I knew going into the race that I was unlikely to match my PR from last year. Still I had hoped to do better than the 53:50 that I finished with.
After the first mile I had already fallen behind my pace from last year, but through the first two miles I was still on track to finish under 50 minutes. Around two and a half miles my knee started hurting and I knew that I was going to be in trouble. By the 5k mark I was over 25 minutes, and around 3.5 miles my knee started to be in serious pain. I was considering walking a bit, and was concerned that I wouldn’t even finish in under 60 minutes.
Mile four is often the hardest part of this course, but instead of being in trouble my knee pain went away and I finished the final two miles in pretty good shape. The middle two miles had been enough to kill my time, but it turned out to not be a complete disaster. Hopefully I can get some actual workouts in before the Shoreline Triathlon.