Luke ran his final race in the Winter Trail Series at Rock Cut last Saturday, a 20k which is 12.4 miles.
He has been off running since the last race, Feb 20 & 4 weeks total, to heal his knee. We're still not sure what the injury is exactly. Silly boy won't go to the doctor. But he's has still been doing cardio in terms of swimming. He said that he was going to play it by ear on Saturday morning. He really wanted his bright orange Survivor race shirt but he also knows that he didn't want to mess up his knee anymore than it already was.
After my 5 mile run, I came back and told him it was pretty stupid to run that. But he felt like his knee is good enough to test it out. And figured that with this being in the woods, the wind shouldn't be too bad. So away we went.
Unfortunately, it had snowed the evening and morning of so there was snow on the ground. We're thinking that might have caused his problem, with the uneven surface that tweaked his knee. And it was chilly. Luckily, I remembered my winter coat as I had been wearing my Spring/Fall jacket instead.
He took off and I went back to the car to get a few nods. I was bound & determined to not miss out on him finishing this time. So since they started at noon, I figured an 1:15p would be a good time to just stand around and wait for him.
At 1 hour and 22 minutes into the race, the first finisher crossed the line. And then he promptly turned around and did the course backwards as Luke told me he saw a runner with a bib number coming towards him.
Unfortunately, there was vandalism on the trail. Someone had turned a sign over so that sent quite a few runners down the wrong path. Luckily, someone in the group realised that and was turning it around as Luke approached the sign. He also missed out on a turn but again someone behind him called ahead to him and yelled out that he missed his turn. Guess it's a good thing he wasn't wearing headphones.
I got into a good photo taking spot at 1 hour and 30 minutes into the run. By this time quite a few people were starting to finish. They were covered in mud, from feet to hips. I kept looking for Luke but alas, I still couldn't see him. He took his cell phone with him in case he needed to call me and DNF (which would have been interesting since I don't know how to drive a stick shift & we took his car) but I hadn't received a phone call so I knew he kept going. At 1 hour 40 minutes, I decided to start being concerned. At that point, it was a 50 minute 10k and well, that's 3 minutes slower than his 10k race result.
Just a minute later, I saw Luke coming around the bend. I called out his name, he gave no indication that he heard me. Then up the hill to the finish line. Yes, there's a hill at the VERY END OF THE RUN. Crazy director. But I got a picture of him finishing. Yay!! And he said that he did hear me and was glad that I was at the finish. He said at other races that it didn't matter to him whether or not I was there. But he said it was nice this time.
He ended up coming in 35th or something. But still 2nd in his age group. His knee starting hurting him 2 miles in and kept it up until mile 4 or 5. Then it stopped and he was able to pick up speed and pass people until about mile 9 when it started again. It looked like he was really hurting when I saw him finishing but I couldn't really judge his speed too well. We walked a bit, got cookies, chili, water & hot chocolate. His limping wasn't too bad while walking.
He has been off running since the last race, Feb 20 & 4 weeks total, to heal his knee. We're still not sure what the injury is exactly. Silly boy won't go to the doctor. But he's has still been doing cardio in terms of swimming. He said that he was going to play it by ear on Saturday morning. He really wanted his bright orange Survivor race shirt but he also knows that he didn't want to mess up his knee anymore than it already was.
After my 5 mile run, I came back and told him it was pretty stupid to run that. But he felt like his knee is good enough to test it out. And figured that with this being in the woods, the wind shouldn't be too bad. So away we went.
Unfortunately, it had snowed the evening and morning of so there was snow on the ground. We're thinking that might have caused his problem, with the uneven surface that tweaked his knee. And it was chilly. Luckily, I remembered my winter coat as I had been wearing my Spring/Fall jacket instead.
He took off and I went back to the car to get a few nods. I was bound & determined to not miss out on him finishing this time. So since they started at noon, I figured an 1:15p would be a good time to just stand around and wait for him.
At 1 hour and 22 minutes into the race, the first finisher crossed the line. And then he promptly turned around and did the course backwards as Luke told me he saw a runner with a bib number coming towards him.
Unfortunately, there was vandalism on the trail. Someone had turned a sign over so that sent quite a few runners down the wrong path. Luckily, someone in the group realised that and was turning it around as Luke approached the sign. He also missed out on a turn but again someone behind him called ahead to him and yelled out that he missed his turn. Guess it's a good thing he wasn't wearing headphones.
I got into a good photo taking spot at 1 hour and 30 minutes into the run. By this time quite a few people were starting to finish. They were covered in mud, from feet to hips. I kept looking for Luke but alas, I still couldn't see him. He took his cell phone with him in case he needed to call me and DNF (which would have been interesting since I don't know how to drive a stick shift & we took his car) but I hadn't received a phone call so I knew he kept going. At 1 hour 40 minutes, I decided to start being concerned. At that point, it was a 50 minute 10k and well, that's 3 minutes slower than his 10k race result.
Just a minute later, I saw Luke coming around the bend. I called out his name, he gave no indication that he heard me. Then up the hill to the finish line. Yes, there's a hill at the VERY END OF THE RUN. Crazy director. But I got a picture of him finishing. Yay!! And he said that he did hear me and was glad that I was at the finish. He said at other races that it didn't matter to him whether or not I was there. But he said it was nice this time.
He ended up coming in 35th or something. But still 2nd in his age group. His knee starting hurting him 2 miles in and kept it up until mile 4 or 5. Then it stopped and he was able to pick up speed and pass people until about mile 9 when it started again. It looked like he was really hurting when I saw him finishing but I couldn't really judge his speed too well. We walked a bit, got cookies, chili, water & hot chocolate. His limping wasn't too bad while walking.
On Sunday, his knee was a lot better than after the 15k. But he's gonna take another 4 weeks, maybe 6 weeks off running and then start again from scratch and hopefully his knee will hold up! But he's thinking he might be done with races for a long while. Especially road races, he wants to stay on the trails.
Anyway, he started describing the course while walking around. It sounded pretty muddy. Something that I would not be cool with. I'm a road runner. Not quite a trail runner like he is. And I'm OK with that.
Also, what I'm OK with is the fact that he's taking more weeks off of running. For those who think that our relationship is based soley on running, is wrong. We have plenty of other things in common as well. Just because we met at a race and both enjoy running, it does not determine why we're together. This is not really a personal blog but a running blog, so I try to mainly talk about running events and that's why anytime I mention him, it's about running.
Anyway, he started describing the course while walking around. It sounded pretty muddy. Something that I would not be cool with. I'm a road runner. Not quite a trail runner like he is. And I'm OK with that.
Also, what I'm OK with is the fact that he's taking more weeks off of running. For those who think that our relationship is based soley on running, is wrong. We have plenty of other things in common as well. Just because we met at a race and both enjoy running, it does not determine why we're together. This is not really a personal blog but a running blog, so I try to mainly talk about running events and that's why anytime I mention him, it's about running.
The starters
Crazy dude
Luke being cold
Taking off
1st guy finishing
Muddy pants & shoes
Another crazy dude
They look cold
1st girl finishing
There's Luke!
His finish
Washing the mud off in the snow
Luke in his Survivor orange shirt
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