From Super Discouraged to Super Encouraged!

What began as a perfect morning for a run almost ended after 2.6 miles for me. Rob and I decided to begin our run on the west side of English Landing Park and run out on the farm road. Somewhere around the 2 mile mark I felt that stabbing pain in my left knee. It went as fast as it came so I contiuned. Around 2.6 miles, I was done! I restarted and restarted, but it was no use. I gave Rob my keys as the plan was for him to go back to the car and come pick me up. We had about a quarter mile to highway FF and I just walked with Rob sticking with me. I asked him to give me a little time to see if the pain would go away. By the time we got to FF I didn't feel any pain so I started a slow pace. We make the turn and headed east back to Parkville. I just couldn't believe the pain was totally gone. We began to pick up the pace and made it back to the car. We hit the gatorade and then added on another 2.5 miles for a 7.51 training run and followed that up with a half mile jog cool down. Total time: 1:15:20 for 7.51 miles with splits of 11:12, 10:44, 11:06 (some walking due to my knee), 10:02, 9:44, 9:13, 8:45 and 4:34 for the .51. Didn't time the half mile cool down. Notice how we were getting faster and faster?

At 2.6 miles I was so dissappointed and was wondering how I would ever finish Dallas, then after the 8 miles I was convinced, if the knee held up, that I could run a sub 4:00! However, I will accept anything between 4:00 and 4:20 and just be grateful I can do this at all!....Mike