Lake Benbrook Half-Marathon

I'm very pleased with my performance at the Lake Benbrook Half-Marathon. Unfortunately, I only did about 9.25 miles of the 13.1-mile course, so my official time was "did not finish". So why am I proud of a DNF? Allow me to explain ...

As I slowly heal up from my bout with iliotibial band friction syndrome, the most important thing for me to do (or, rather, not do) is to stop running at the first sign of pain.

Jarrod, Derek and I headed out at a 9:15/mi pace, which was not bad considering the out-and-back course was quite hilly. As we reached the second water stop at the 4.6 mile mark, I noticed that my knee was starting to throb. The pain wasn't too bad, but I had to make a decision. I probably could have continued and made it to the 6.5-mile turnaround point, but instead I turned around and walked back toward the start/finish line.

It was really tough to turn around and see all of the runners still heading out with determination to complete their goal. Saw all of the other runners and a few walkers too heading out to the turnaround. Actually, only a few minutes after I turned around, I got passed by the overall winner (who finished the race in 1:17:38!) After waving to the final walker about 3.5 miles from the start, the walk (over an hour total) got a little lonely. But I resisted the urge to run or even jog - I walked the entire 4.62 miles back to the start. As the lead runners and then the "main competitve pack" (including many Fort Worth Running Club members) passed me, I got to view the race from a different perspective.

In the end, I am really glad I am turned around when I did and that I "stayed the course" by not running on the way back in. Even though I could have jogged to at least the halfway point, if I would have made it that far, my adrenaline/blockheadedness would have kicked in and I would have wanted to run the entire course - knee pain be damned. That could have been disasterous since even walking the entire way back, by about a mile from the end, I could definitely feel my IT band making its presence known.

So I ran almost 5 miles without pain and I avoided further injury. That's about as good a day as I could have. Like I said: pleased ...

Discretion is the better part of valor. Better to "lose this battle" to have a chance to "win the war". Only two months to go until the Galveston Lonestar Half-Ironman tri!

Race results (even though I'm not on them :-P): http://www.clinesrunningcorner.com/benbrookhalfres_08.pdf