Hills and altitude

I ran the Salt Lake City half marathon today. I will give a race recap later, but for know I will fill you in on the race from the airport.

Hills and altitude. The race was 4700 feet up at the start. And finished a couple hundred feet below that. I was expecting some uphill sections, but these were not hills. They were mountains. And for the record, there are mountains high enough -- to keep me away from you. (It's a song... or at least my version). These hills were pretty steep and couple that with a higher altitude than I am accustomed to, then you have a recipe for exhaustion.

As you are aware, I have not been able to train too much in the last several weeks. I was only able to run 20 miles in the last four weeks when I had been averaging 20 miles per week.   I was also still a bit concerned about my calf. During the last race in Little Rock I re-injured it. Then laid off for several weeks and then started training maybe a little early and injured it again. I was afraid that I would continue to injure and reinjure over and over. I have another race in just two weeks in Indy. So, I decided to take it easy on this one. My goal was to finish uninjured -- which I did!!  YAY!!  Of course I also wanted to put up a good time, but in the end I opted to walk the steep hills so that I did not hurt my calf again. It apparently worked... but DANG... walking will slow you down.

In all, I am pleased. Pleased that I fiaished in decent time and pleased that my leg is better. Now I can begin to train again. I am looking forward to getting back in shape.

Race recap next -- we are boarding the plane.