Yep this past Sunday I started my first half marathon of the year and I didn’t finish. This had to be one of the hardest decisions I have had to make.
Why do you ask? Well at mile 9 my dumb IT Band started to hurt. So bad that I barely made it up Harlem Hill. Looking back, I think I probably should have walked, but I needed to run Harlem. This part was more mental than anything. I have hated Harlem Hill so much that I needed to get past the hill and then re-evaluate my knee situation. By the time I realized I might have to stop I was already over the hill. Just like that I was done with it then the pain set in. I cannot even tell you the pain that I felt, I thought, ok I will walk the rest of the way but when I came to 103rd street I knew I was done for. I had to stop. The pain was so bad I couldn’t walk so I went to a volunteer and told him that I needed help getting to my bag.
Now this is where the situation got bad, as I stood there with the volunteer he called the emergency number, no answer. Ok he called the next number and nothing. Then the next and no one was picking up the phone. He tried them all four again and again and again. At first I thought ok I am not dying I am ok but then once I started shivering that’s when I started to get annoyed. How could it be that with 4 emergency numbers there to call, no one picked up a phone? After standing there for 10 minutes a volunteer on a bike came over and said she would ride down to 90th to get the ambulance that was there. At this point I was freezing, shaking and the pain, oh the pain. Cara and Jenn came by and saw me and they stopped to see if I was ok. This was the moment that I lost it and just started to cry. Cara offered to stay but I told her to go on and that I would be ok. Plus I didn’t want to mess up her time for the half. I didn’t know that they called Vane but I was so thankful that they did and told her what happened so she could look for me at the medical tent.
Still no ambulance. The volunteer (bless him) saw that I was so cold and took off his jacket and gave it to me which helped a little. Now a cop truck came by and he radioed an ambulance to come over because they could not take me….why I don’t know. They have a truck and they were just sitting there in their truck as they saw how cold I was. Now I was getting so annoyed!! It took all of 20 minutes for an ambulance to get to me, and after I was in the ambulance, three other ones showed up. Does this make any sense?? What if I was really ill or worse had a heart attack..I could have died because the ambulances weren't around….Ok I get it that might be a little dramatic but seriously it took the ambulances 20 minutes to come to me, over 15 calls to four emergency numbers.
As I sat in the ambulance I got a little warm, and as both the paramedics sat with me in the back to get my information I asked them, if they could just drive me to baggage check to get my bag. Their response "where is that"? Are you serious??!! At this point I was done. I was so annoyed. So I asked someone else to please take me to where I could get my stuff. I was sure that all my friends had left since we had decided we would meet up after the race. Finally someone else got in and drove me to the medical tent, which was right by the finish line. In order for me to get to the finish line I had to cross across as people were crossing the finish line---and that broke my heart a little more. As I sat in the tent they warmed me up and iced up my knee, then I heard my name. I looked up and it was Vane and Steph. Steph made sure I was ok and then got me a bagel. As soon as Vane hugged me I lost it again. I was so bummed and my heart was broken because I didn’t finish the race, but like my doctor and PT told me and Vane reminded me this was not our race. I had to remember that.
After a chilling ice bath at Equinox (my new gym) with Vane and a hot runner with only compression shorts on (so hot HOT HOT caliente) and stretching, I felt better. I saw Danielle on Monday and she gave me strict orders... no running for two weeks. I am going to listen to her since she got me running the marathon and I experienced no pain. So as much as this will hurt me, I wont run for two weeks but once I do get back….I will be a Rock Star AGAIN!
One last thing... as I went to NYRR to see my NF, I actually had a time of 2:24 (my worst ever) I guess when I cut across to the medical tent my chip was close enough to the finish so it counted that as my time….great that means my pace is now registered as a 10:53! Oh well just one more thing to work up from, right? :)
Till the next race.
MM
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