Setbacks.

This morning I had a lovely start to what was supposed to be a 20 mile run.  I parked at Cook's Landing and took off over the bridge.  I saw the full moonlight glittering on the river and the sky at the horizon was the deepest hot pink I've ever seen.  The air was cool.  It was beautiful.

My right knee started to hurt along the outside at about 3 or so miles in.  It was annoying, nothing else.  I tried to think of other things.  I had headed down Rebsamen Park past Murray Park and the golf course.  I turned back around 4.5 miles.  Back at Murray Park, I refilled my water bottles and headed on down toward Two Rivers bridge.  The pain was still mostly just annoying.  It didn't start to get bad until I got to the other end of Two Rivers Park.  I stopped to refill on water again and when I started running, it was much worse.  I was moving slowly, around 11 minutes per mile, and hoped to keep going.  Back at the dam, I passed the entrance to the bridge and went back down towards Murray Park.  Still moving slowly, I knew at this point that walking didn't help and that if I stopped again it was for good.  That happened at about 16.5 miles.

I called J to let her know I was hobbling back to my car and tried not to kick up a pity party.  Some girls gave me a ride from the last park entrance down to the bridge, which I appreciated very much.  I crossed the bridge, finally, and made it back to my car.

And now here I am.  After a summer of training, I don't know what's in store.  Obviously I hope to take it easy for a few days and still make the race.  I'm going to look into new shoes tomorrow evening since I feel like a lack of support for my feet contributed to this.  Who knows.  I have talked about this so much and it has become so important to me--I know that if I have to miss this race that there will be other races, but the thought of letting go of this goal that I have had since the spring is so sad.