"If we don't suffer enough we won't remember it."

I woke up Sunday morning with even more swelling in my left knee and a lot of soreness in my right shoulder and the left side of my neck.  I whiplashed my neck and bruised my shoulder when I hit the ground on Saturday.  The maid problem is my left knee.  It's hard to imagine how in the world I'll be able to run a marathon on Saturday when my knee is so swollen and hurts so bad that I can't even walk normally on Monday.  This is very discouraging.  I'm taking Ibuprofin off and on and iceing it several times a day.  I guess later today or tomorrow I'll start alternating heat/ice. 

My  hopes of running St. George are fading.  I still have some swelling in my knee.  I can walk normally, but it hurts a little to do so.  My test run down the hallway in my house was rather painful.  I did heat/ice/heat/ice on Monday night and Tuesday morning and rode my bike up/down the street a few times very slowly to get it moving again, which both seemed to help.  If I can't go out an run two miles without pain on Friday morning then I won't go to St. George.

I decided not to do the St. George Marathon tomorrow.

I took 800 mg of Ibuprofin at 6:00 a.m and went out for a run at 7:00 a.m.  I ran 1 mile loop, stopped, stood in the road thinking in front of my house, ran the loop again, came inside, went back out and ran the loop again.  My knee hurt every step I took.  It was the type of pain I could live with for a 10k, or maybe even an easy 10 mile run, but not a marathon. 

I wanted to enjoy St. George and hopefully run sub 3 hrs.  I think with that type of pain I won't enjoy it.  The pain would wear on me and I would stress the whole time about whether it would become unbearable etc.  I think I'm in shape to run a sub 3 hr on that course, but it's just not going to happen tomorrow.

I am encouraged my knee didn't seem to swell up more afterwards and doesn't feel any worse from the run.  I also don't think I did any permanent damage as it just still feels really bruised, etc. 

Good luck to everybody else running St. George tomorrow!

Met my brother Mark for his 10 mile run up/down Provo Canyon.  I rode a bike most of the way.  About 1 1/2 miles from our turn around point I parked the bike and ran up/down for a total of 3 miles.  Then I hopped back on my bike and rode home.  The canyon seemed deserted with all the St. George marathon runners gone.  My knee hurt on the run, but actually seemed a little better at the end than the beginning and didn't swell or hurt more afterwards.  I know I did the right thing to not do St. George.