My first DNF

Well, today I hang my head in shame and frustration. It was meant to be a morning of PRs and training assessments. I lined up a 10k for my fifth week of marathon training. The timing worked out perfectly with an easy 14 mile pace run scheduled for Saturday. I felt confident that I would be energized and ready to race come Sunday morning. Six fast-paced miles to finish off a great weekend.

Let's start with a quick overview of the past five weeks, in terms of my long runs. Most everything else has been treadmill speed work, having not done hills in two weeks.

Week 1: 15 miler - felt good, achy same-day, fine the next
Week 2: 17.5 miler - felt great, finished off with a sprint
Week 3: 18 miler - felt okay, struggled to finish up, but ended strong; went on an easy jog and pitched into the sidewalk, severely bruising both knees
Week 4: 20 miler - felt good, knees hurt that afternoon but no swelling, healthy as a clam on Sunday without pain
Week 5: 14 miler - start out sluggish, strong and fast from 6-11 miles, endured finish; jogged in old running shoes to bus (0.6 miles) afterwards - exhausted

When I awoke this morning, I felt a nagging pain in the right side of my right knee, and on the left side of my left foot. It feels like one of those pains when you pull the muscle, step on it wrong or sleep on it wrong. Something that you can work out with a little physical activity or rest. So I tried jogging down to the T station, but the foot and knee were both nagging, so I mainly walked. Reaching South Station, I walked to the start line, not ran. Again, a light jog didn't make it feel better, so I figured I'd not irritate it further and save myself for the race.

The race started slow. I was feeling awful, and with the foot and knee pain, my first mile was a whopping 9:43 (gun time). Shocked at just how slow things were going, I pushed myself hard to make up for that extra minute once we passed that clock. I felt myself shift into a faster, rhythmic groove. Feeling good. This lasted approximately 1/2 mile. At which point the pain in my knee was no longer feeling like something I could run through and/or use to drive me. I started having thoughts about whether it would be okay if I just stopped at the 5k. Little did I know that I didn't even have another 1/2 mile left in me.

It got bad fast. The pavement turned to cobbled stone, a stronger stab of pain. I rapidly got back on even ground, a slight limp to my run. I tried gritting my teeth, telling myself to get lost in the music and focus on a running daydream rather than the pain in my knee. But it was persistant, getting stronger and lasting long through my stride. Until finally I just limped to the side and stopped. I figured if I rested for a few minutes, breathed through it, I could pick it back up again to make it to the finish line. I couldn't tell where the end was, however. How close we were.

And then a concerned runner asked if I was okay. Another girl paused as well, identifying herself as a nurse. I had tears running down my face from the effort of running and gritting through the pain, so honestly, I looked worse than it was. I said I was okay, just in pain, to keep running. She got a race volunteer. The race volunteer insisted that I stop and she called for help. It amounted to waiting an extra 60 minutes for the race to finish. It was bitter cold and a wind tunnel, so I said inside the first set of doors to the World Trade Center. Just waited. I tried exercising my knee, bending, tried walking. Rapidly reassuring myself that, no, I probably wouldn't make it the mile back. Although let me tell you, I kind of wish I had insisted more. It was so frustrating, just sitting there. Waiting. Watching all the runners go by and knowing that should be me. Ugh.

The injury isn't even visible. I don't have constant pain or anything blatantly obvious. I only limp some of the time, especially after sitting for a while. I'm just at a loss.

After some googling, its really coming down to one thing: my IT band. This freaks me out, since I simply can't get that kind of injury. I'm staying off it training-wise for the next couple of days. I'll swim tomorrow instead. I'll have one of the nurses or doctors check it out at work. I just need someone to confirm and not confirm what it is so I can work on fixing it. Being that there was no obvious cause and it just appeared this morning, I hope that this is just a fluke, not a longer-term injury. Damnit. I know I pushed myself really hard the past month in terms of distance, but I've felt great. Cardiovascularly I was ready, and my legs, while pained, are not being pushed beyond anything they can't comfortably do.