Friday night was the Twilight 12K and Skinny Mini 6K here in Anchorage, and once again–for the 12th year–it was a beautiful evening!
12th year for the 12K, and I was #12!
For the past three weeks, I’ve been sidelined with a hip/glute/hamstring injury that sometimes showed up as bursitis, sometimes tightness in the glute/hamstring, and sometimes just pain on my hip. I first had some dry needling on it, which definitely helped, but the one thing I didn’t like about dry needling is that it left me really sore for quite a while–usually a couple days–and too sore to run. After a few dry needling sessions, I started feeling some bursitis in my hip, and I didn’t think dry needling would be able to help that, so I decided to go and have some ART (active release technique) done on it. (In hindsight, I think dry needling could have helped with it too.) I had had a lot of success with ART helping my previous hip injury, so I was hoping it would help this time as well.
I showed up at my ART appointment on Thursday (after three other appointments), with a hip that did not seem to be getting better. I would always have pain when running and sometimes afterwards, and it seemed to be moving around. The one thing both professionals said was that everything was incredibly tight. I went to my chiropractor (who does my ART) frustrated that I hadn’t been making progress, but he continued to reassure me I actually was making progress.
He said he had to work through the top layers of the glute muscles in order to get to the root of the problem and the layers of built-up tissue. That day he was literally in my glute with his elbow and all of his body weight working me through the ringer. It was not enjoyable, but when I got off the table, I felt like I had a new hip! Seriously! He must have worked some magic because I felt ten times better!
I had already run Thursday morning, so the first time running on my “new hip” was at the Twilight 12K Friday night. I was worried it was still going to bother me, but it quickly warmed up and felt really good before the race started. While I don’t love running in the evening, I love the atmosphere of the Twilight 12K. It starts at 7:00 p.m., so not twilight–that doesn’t come around until about midnight these days, and usually attracts about 1500 people and fast people (as there is some prize money). I did my warm-ups and was ready to go when the gun went off. After 25 years of running, you would think I would have figured out how to pace myself at the beginning of a race, but I STILL start out too fast.
Mile 1 – 6:10
Mile 2 – 6:38
There’s a long gradual climb for about half of mile before mile two, so I know not to expect a stellar split.
I settled into a pretty comfortable pace through Government Hill (mile 3), but then coming back over the bridge, we were running straight into the wind and up a long, gradual incline again, so mile 4 was pretty slow.
Mile 3 – 6:26
Mile 4 – 6:42
The last 0.25 mile is on grass, and Craig caught this picture as I ran through this beam of light coming down from the sky.
I started to see my splits get slower on these next few miles, and it reminded me that I have lost fitness during the last few weeks I haven’t been able to train. I thought I still might be doing okay, but mile 7 is tough as we climb a steep hill that plateaus into a gradual incline with another steeper climb to the last quarter mile on grass. Not ideal, but everyone runs the same course!
Mile 5 – 6:32
Mile 6 – 6:39
Mile 7 – 6:58
Mile 0.4 – 6:57 minute/mile pace
I had glanced at my watch with less than a mile to go, and I thought I’d be finishing in sub-49 minutes, but when I saw the clock at 49:xx as I neared the finish, I was pretty bummed. My PR is 48:24, which I ran 7 months postpartum! And then last year I ran 48:52, which was coming off a 10 month injury with only a 2 month build-up. So needless to say I have my work cut out for me. I don’t think it will take me too long to build back up, but it sure is frustrating when you lose (in a short period of time) what you worked so hard to build up to (in a much longer period of time).
On a more positive note, Craig ran the 6K and beat his PR by just under 3 minutes running it in 32:27 (8:38 pace)! He has been running and lifting quite a bit lately, and it also helps he’s lost 40 pounds by cutting out sugar from his diet!
At the end of the day, while I’m bummed about my performance, I am SO thankful that my injury seems to be gone. I’m going to continue to see my chiropractor for ART because at 35 years old, I don’t recover like I used to and my body is much more prone to injury now. Let’s hope I can get a solid block of training in this summer because I live for running and racing in the summer, and it is why I endure so many bitter cold, dark winter mornings for several months out of the year!
