I came into Nashville as ready as I ever could. I had a great training cycle until about 3 weeks before the race and started having some knee pains. I even had to bail 5 miles in on my second 20 mile run while I was in Florida on spring break. My coach started my taper a little earlier than normal to let my knee rest. I got to Nashville about a week before the race for client meetings and had a few 4 mile runs on the hills of Nashville. My knee was feeling good with KT tape and a compression knee brace.

I knew the morning of race day, things could go one of two ways. I would come out with a PR or the knee would act up. (The longest I had run was 8 miles since the knee started hurting several weeks ago.) It was a perfect morning and temps were in the mid 50s at the start of the race. I was feeling great and hitting my paces (8:39-9:11 with and without hills) with no problems and my heart rate in the upper 140s and low 150s. I was letting gravity take me down the hills and turning my legs like text book. I got to mile 10 and started to feel it. That was where I had a choice to make as the half marathon and the full split. I decided to go for it all and stuck with the full course. I got to the 13.6 miles and found that my knee was done. I took it down to a walk, hop, skipped, anything to get to the finish.

At about mile 15, we had a turn into the baseball stadium and there was a co-worker cheering me on. Jill said get through that and she would run with me to the rest of my co-workers about a mile away. We had an easy jog going and helped having support there on the course. They had some Tylenol for me to help get me through to the end. At the end of the day, I crossed that finish line at 5:11.38.

I loved Nashville. Yes, it was crazy with the NFL draft going on, but the crowd support was great. Random people would congratulate runners just walking down Lower Broadway with medals around our necks. Going through the neighborhoods, there was food everywhere to keep you going. Salty snacks, frozen ice pops, and beer! (I may have taken advantage of the beer on the last half since I was basically walk/jogging it while I was in pain.) Even when we got over towards Belmont University, the students were out cheering everyone on which was great to see. Yes, college kids will get out of bed at 7:30ish a.m. to cheer people on with some great signs.

While I was in Nashville, I got to meet up with some of my IG friends and had a celebratory dinner with 2 of us completing the full and 2 completing the half marathons. I also got to meet Carrie, who is a fellow Crohnnie that has run with Team Challenge at the Expo. It was great to meet up with people that followed me on my Chicago journey and meet them in person. I will get to join Caroline and her fiance’ in DC for the Marine Corps in the fall so I am looking forward to that.

I ended up going to get the knee checked out. Come to find out, it isn’t anything major that will require surgery, thank goodness. Just some good rest, ice, compression and elevation and they think that things will work it out. This next cycle, I will be working in some more strength training to keep this from happening again in.

I don’t have anything planned for the summer…yet. I’m sure there will be a 10k and/or a half thrown in the mix somewhere while I am training for MCM.

On the Crohn’s front, everything is great. I finally got the new Humira with no Citrate. Oh my goodness! What a difference! You can’t even feel the medicine going in. I have always had a hard time doing the shot myself with the anticipation of the stinging, but there is nothing with the new formula. I don’t even feel the needle going in. If you are taking Humira, I HIGHLY suggest getting the new formula. It’s like night and day.