I ran the Salt Lake City 1/2 Marathon this day. I hadn't run in 10 days due to my nasal passage surgery and also the ongoing problem with my hamstring tightening up. The night before when I wasn't feeling very well my husband said, "Are you sure you should be running tomorrow?" I said, "Yes! I just want to feel normal again."
The next morning as Melanie and I were freezing cold, in the rain, squatting down in some bushes together peeing she said, "Are we crazy? We're crazy." Having already told her about my comment to my husband the night before I said, "The crazy thing is, this is what I have to do to feel 'normal.'"
I must say overall I was just happy to be out running, but really the race was miserable. My hamstring hurt most of the way, not bad, but enough to stress me out about how much it would bother me later. I must have started out too fast based on how much I slowed down and the cold really got to me. I think the cold is part of my hamstring problem. I felt like everything was tight by the end because I was so cold. I walked through a water stop because I felt thirsty at mile 5 and ran 20 seconds behind Melanie most of the race. Towards the end I thought "I'm running a 7 min mile. I should be able to pick it up to a 6:40 or even 6:50 and catch her," but I couldn't. I wanted to run with her and couldn't make up even a short distance.
I thought my misery was over when the race ended, but that was really just the start. Melanie and I only hung around for maybe 5 min before we were freezing and started running the 2 miles back to the car in the rain and already soaking wet. About .9 into our "cool-down" we came to a hill that from a distance looked like stairs! We walked the hill and by the top we were even colder. We ran another .1 then decided to walk. We had another mile to the car and it was a very long miserable mile. I told her my dad used to say, "If we don't suffer enough we won't remember it." At first our "suffering" was a little funny, but by the end it was not funny at all. I really wondered if we needed to stop and get help. Our whole bodies were shivering when we got to the car. We stripped down and put on dry clothes. I didn't have any dry pants so I rode home in my underwear.
When I got home my hamstring was so tight I couldn't bend over at all. I think it would have hurt no matter what, but being so cold and shivering I'm sure made things tighten up even more. I spent over an hour rubbing myself out and felt tons better. Then I went to my sons soccer game and by the end I couldn't bend again. I'm so frustrated. I really hope the warm weather that must be coming will help me get all the tightness worked out.
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