Semi-related trail photo!

I wanted to get one last long run in before the race this weekend. My week is jam-packed with softball and book launches, so Monday evening it was. For a few days beforehand, I was even toying with running 12k, maybe even 14k, that night. My knees thought otherwise.

On the weekend, we went to a family thing, and Matt’s mom seemed confident that my knee issues are related to overuse and lack of stretching. This makes sense to me: my yoga practice practically disappeared once I starting running over 30k on my long runs and I haven’t been going more than once a week since my marathon, despite my best intentions. Around 2k, the knees became overwhelming. It’s not that it’s too painful to run. Instead, I’m getting in my own head, worried they will get worse if I don’t stop. I stopped, stretched, turned around and made it through 6 more kms before I ended the run. Overall, it was tough, but uneventful.

And since that family party, I’ve been stretching and foam-rolling like crazy. We’ll see how it goes.

The run: 8.3k in 50:40
The route: