3M Half Marathon race report: Lungs wrote a check my legs could not cash

This is how close I came to not even running this race: The day before, out for an easy four-mile run, I pass on the trail the physical therapist who has been working on my leg. She sees my gait, right leg flapping, landing awkwardly. We stop at the water barrels under Mopac. She says, “Oh, my, what is wrong with you – maybe you shouldn’t run (3M) tomorrow.”

And I thought about it. Really thought about it. I mean, it’s one thing to run 6 or 7 miles with this leg malady, and an entirely something else to run twice as long as fast as you can.

But I’m stubborn. And since I’m in no pain when I run, I decided to race, with the hopes of, No. 1, not getting hurt, and No. 2, at least running a respectable time, which I deemed to be within a minute or two my PR – a 1:31 in the 3M Half Marathon in 2010.

Goals accomplished.

2012 3M Half Marathon Splits: I was never able to really challenge my heart and lungs because my legs wouldn't work.

I added my heart rate to these splits to give you a sense of how hard my lungs and heart were working. My maximum heart rate is 200. The average heart rate for the entire run was 172 or 86 percent. That is an effort I can run all day. And during the first 9 miles on Sunday, I was coasting along, lungs feeling fine, breathing feeling fine.

But I knew my legs were not holding up. With each half mile, with each crest of a hill (no matter how slight the hills were), I slowly began losing control of my ability to control my quads. And soon they began spasming and I had to stop a few times at Miles 10 and 11 just to quiet my quads down. Thank God the last two miles were mostly downhill, so I was able to regain some semblance of race pace, but as you can see, I never really challenged my heart and lungs by speeding up because my legs just wouldn’t let me.

In essence, my lung and heart wrote a check that my legs just could not cash.

But like I said earlier – I didn’t get hurt and I finished within a few minutes of my goal. I still feel like I can run a sub 1:30 if totally healthy. To do that, I think I need to strengthen my glutes and core, because right now, my quads do all the work and they tire out.