Afternoon race today so I thought I would get in a short run this morning to shakeout the driving legs from yesterday. Turned out to be more of a negative run then anything else I have done this week. Was thinking anywhere from 6-8 just nice and easy but at the 2-2.5 mile point my left gluteus maximus seized up and I tried some stretching slowing down the pace but I could not get the pain away so I said never mind and walked back to the friends house. NOT a confidence builder for this afternoon. Before the race they were doing free injury screenings so I checked it out to see how bad this was. The therapist and I decided that I just aggravated my lower back from sleeping on a soft couch last night. So I decided to go ahead with the race, but abandoned the plan of going out in 6min and seeing what happens. This was an unique race with the ladies getting a 5:30 head start and the guys chasing. It had some pros and cons for me, but so many runner/walkers were now in front of me in the first two miles that it took me a long time to get through. (they were supposed to have a passing lane but it didn't quite work out.) So after getting cutoff so many times I finally ran faster 2-5miles but then started feeling tired. But here was the good part of the race, usually at this time I would have very few to chase, but because of the staggered start I still had quite a few runners to pass that last 1.2 to keep me going. No splits, just glad that I didn't hurt my muscle anymore. (Secondary goal was under 40, I think I would've made it with a watch but overall still ok with the result.) | 