Rick and I both wanted to do an end of year half marathon, to get in qualifying times for registering for the Pikes Peak Ascent in 2020. The choice was the Walnut Creek Half; it was close enough to not require a motel, saving time and costs, and the course looked to be fast, and had some miles through city parks. I had semi-optimistic hopes for this race, that'd I'd have little enough psoas inflammation that I could let my fitness take me to a 2:25 or better (Pikes Peak qualifier time). Actually, my fitness could have taken me, I'd guess, to a 2:15.

The day was cold, with low ground fog. 45F. Perfect for half marathon running.

Still, with my pace I could afford to slow down and maybe still hit my qualifier time. I went into "pain management" mode and kept going as fast as my psoas would let me. I persevered, kept up the pace, but slowly had to dial back. First the 2:00 pacer passed me. Then the 2:05 pacer passed me at mile 3, then the 2:10 pacer before mile 4. Then the 2:15 pacer at mile 5, the 2:20 pacer at mile 6, and... before mile 7, the 2:25 pacer caught me. I tried to stay in sight, but on the downhill of the one big hill, the impact was really crippling me. I knew then, that my race was baked.

After the race, Rick drove around and around trying to remember this special breakfast spot. Finally, we found it. These are some of the funky signs on the walls.

Today (1 day after the race), my right leg (the one w/o the metal insert) feels just fine. Like it hardly got a workout. I wasn't breathing hard at all during the race. So what happened? My left psoas, over my left metal hip, started feeling irritated at mile one. After that, it was pain management, as I saw another 10K of pain ahead of me. Since it's essentially a loop course, there's no "bail out" anyway, and besides, I wasn't going to suffer THAT kind of defeat. I could still aim for a relatively decent time vs other half marathons in the past year or so, when my hip trouble has come back. The 4 week respite seems a thing of the past, though. My theories of progress, blown away. And now I have to re-group and figure out what is causing my irritation once again.

What has been accomplished? I had 3 good visits and evals from runner's PT extraordinaire Jeff Moreno. He altered my running form for the better, for the distance runner I prefer to be - more angle in the hip/lower spine, taking pressure off psoas stretch. Shorter stride, faster turnover. He had me do exercises to strengthen the surrounding musculature of my left hip. And especially to beef up my glutes, especially the left. Initially, I was unable to get off the ground from a left-foot planted/right knee on ground, to standing up. That's fixed, or at least much better. I can do many of those now, without much strain. I've put stretching, especially hamstring stretch right before running, back in the mix. I've put psoas standing stretches back into my routine as well - something I'd forgotten to do after Jeff said I had plenty of flexibility there and that wasn't going to be the solution. The combination of all of these things... And I've done a 10-12 mile run every weekend for the past 4 weekend leading up to the Walnut Creek Half, and no hip pain. At all! Even at the end. Highly gratifying and getting me thinking about doing some fast-packing on desert trails this winter... Now, I have to regroup.

Still, at least I didn't do a 3:30 or a 3:45 like some famous bombed out races of the past. 3:02 is not good, but far from the WORST Half I've done, even though I'm older than all the other races. If I figger this out, I'll let you know. For now - rest, ice, more swimming.

I came in at 3:01:55. Ugh. 7th out of 7 in my age group. Ugh.

Race Results