I tell you what… the fall out from this race has been lengthy… and I think it’s what caused me to wait so long to write about this race. The annoying thing is that I was perfectly trained for this. I’d done all my runs necessary (not as much as is sometimes listed on a training sheet, but way more than some of the races I’ve done where I’ve barely trained). And yet… this didn’t turn out so great.

I’ve run the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon quite a few times now. This might be my fifth or sixth time running, so  I’m fairly familiar with the course. It starts with a bit of an uphill, then downhill… then just flat for a very long time… until you get to the end and then it’s this horrible arduous uphill from roughly the 19th kilometer right to the end. It’s a nice enough race though (and the energy is incredible), so I find myself signing up for it every other year or so.

What I wasn’t expecting with this race was that around the 17th or 18th kilometers my knees started to lock up. Bending was becoming a real issue as my knees were wanting to stay completely straight. I haven’t mentioned this before, because it’s never really come up or been necessary to mention, but when I was younger I used to figure skate competitively – and that can really do a number on your knees. I’ve never had especially problematic or weak knees, BUT – once a year, in my teen years – one of my knees would seize up completely (generally my right leg because it’s my jump landing leg) and I wouldn’t be able to bend it for a week. Nothing every transpired with this – it never really HURT – it was just completely unbendable for a week, and then it would go back to normal. That sensation from my teen years was EXACTLY what I felt towards the end of this race. I had to force myself to bend my knees to finish the race, which was… arduous. But I did it and I was like “phew, whatever – at least I finished”.

After the race, my knees healed themselves as expected – within about five days I was bending them no problem. However… the fall out, which I didn’t expect, was that I had done something to my hip. It’s almost four weeks after the race now and I’m still struggling to get full strength back into my right hip. It’s much, much better now than it was (I had extreme pain for a solid week – I could barely walk), but it’s not where it was before. I find this extremely frustrating because I just don’t get injured frequently, and it’s meant that I’ve had to completely back off weightlifting and running in order to heal. I had tested it out by doing deadlifts about two weeks ago and almost put myself back to square one with the pain – so I waited another two weeks before I did anything physical again.

So I’m feeling out of sorts. This wasn’t a terrible race (although it certainly wasn’t my best), but I definitely did SOMETHING to my legs that pissed them off. I’m slowly running short distances now (did 2.5k yesterday!) and I’m happy to do be doing that because not exercising feels HORRIBLE. It’s a slow crawl to heal up to full, but I’m taking my time because I don’t want to re-injure myself or cause permanent damage.

Race Results

• Finish Time: 2:09:24
• Pace: 6:08 per kilometer
• Overall placement: 4966/9806
• Age group placement (Female 35-39 years): 289/601
• Gender placement (F): 2142/4712