What a day. I got my first DNF (Did Not Finish). Here's what happened:
The day started out great. It was not too cold (abut 48 degrees). Got to the site on time and handed off my drop off bag in the drop zone and proceeded to the starting line. The race started at 7:30 AM and the beginning of a long day ensued. Remember this race was two loops of 31 miles, over very rough and non-standard terrain. I ran with my buddy Miles (who I met at the 50 mile Huntsville Ultra) and things were going pretty well. The course was definitely rolling hills and at some specific times very steep uphill rock climbs. Here are a few pics of the flat parts:
And of course there is a corresponding downhill to all this. I should have known that something was going to go wrong when we got a few miles in and there was a guy standing on the trail telling us to take a detour. Let me tell you that this course is very remote and parts of it are not accessible by car or atv, etc. So they had these rescue guys out patrolling the course on horseback. So this detour was very unusual, especially the morning of the race. Turns out that on the crazy sloped trail with all the loose rocks, a horse had fallen and had to be put down. They detoured us so that we wouldn't see it.
So I say to myself: "Better run REEAAALLLYYY careful". Here's a picture I nabbed from a fellow runner with a small idea of what those rocky areas looked like:
At mile 15 or so it happened. I was following Miles downhill and lost my footing on those darn wobbly rocks and went butt over teakettle. I wrenched my bad knee in the process. At first I thought I was ok, and started to run again but after a few miles my knee started to REALLY hurt. And of course it was more agravated that the ground is uneven.
At about Mile eighteen my knee wouldn't hardly bend anymore and running was out of the question. I called it a day. I must say I was really disappointed. This was the first race I didn't finish.
Of course, this race was just for fun (if running 62 miles can be called that), and I wanted to make sure I would be able to Ironman Lake Placid in July.
I went to the orthopedic surgeon today and had my knee X-Rayed and evaluated. He said that my knee (while painful and messed up), I didn't cause it any severe damage. So that was great news. I start doing some rehab on Wednesday and will let you all know how that goes.