Day after long run: a 5k race? Sure... Why not!?

So long ago I agreed to a race a month with a co-worker. So I had signed up for some of these races long before I joined the running group and learned about my training schedule. 

Thus a running weekend with an 8 mile run followed the next day with a 5k race at USC for Prostrate Cancer Research...aargh. My left knee muscle (now learned it is called the popliteus muscle) was already bothering me from the 8 mile run so I was really dreading the race today.

My running partner and I laughed this morning when we were walking to the race, we said, "At least it's only 3 miles!", a sentence we both could not believe. We agreed we had already come a long ways to be able to say that now. But he was still feeling stiff in his calves from his hill sprints on Thursday and the 8 miler yesterday. So we both walked to the race limping and moaning about how much we did not want to do this but knowing neither of us could back out without the other giving such grief, it would not be worth it.

He was still going for a good run time, and  I told him to go for it. I was going to run/walk it to save my knee. We split up at the start line, me hanging back and him moving to the front but we agreed to meet at the water fountain afterwards. As anticipated, the race was painful...I was feeling my knee scream before I even hit the mile 1 marker. I was walking before I passed the marker and by 1.5 miles, I was thinking of dropping out completely. I realized though that either way I had to get back to where we started so I figured I might as well complete the race and just walk as much as I needed. I walked a lot! Though I did not walk for minutes at a time, I stopped again and again when my knee was telling me too- I was miserable. The pain is gone when walking and appears during the run...so I walked and ran and walked and ran some more...somewhere I missed the mile 2 sign and was feeling unhappy that quitting was no longer an option. I was too damn stubborn to give up. 

Nearing the end, I went for it, trying to gain some time back from all the walking. After I got to the home stretch I could not feel my knee, only hear my friend screaming for me- and the crowd cheering. I finished in 31:41. Not bad for all the walking, but I was really happy that I finished what I set out to do.

We celebrated our week run efforts with a great breakfast. I treated my feet to an Epsom salt soak and am icing my knee up. I feel pretty good, and see my body is recovering quicker and quicker each week. I feel like I am on my way!

Aaaaah!