I should really remember to update this every once in awhile :)

I am on my blog a lot (mostly reading from my blogroll) but I rarely update!

My knee is no longer swollen and is getting better. The anti-inflammatories, crosstraining and my new compression sleeve are really helping, although I miss running on a regular basis. Thankfully, I've had two races in the past few weeks, and my knee has held out for both of them.

I ran in the Tennessee Ragnar Relay last weekend (Nov 5th and 6th) and did better than ever! My legs were 4.2, 2.7, and 4.4 miles in length (thanks to a last minute switch to purposely take shorter mileage so I didn't completely kill my knee!) I ran the 4.2 with a 9:30 pace, the 2.7 with a 9:00 pace and that 4.4 with a 10:00 pace! Considering I normally do my tempo runs at 9:45, I rocked it!

Yesterday I ran in the iRunForTheParty Nashville half marathon. I was worried because this is the first race that I ran without my training partner. I wasn't sure how I would fare without her encouragement! But, I BEAT MY OLD PR BY 18 FULL MINUTES! :) I finished in 2:17:50! That's a 10:27 pace! :) I stayed with the 2:15 pacer for the first 6.5 miles but, due to poor planing by race officials, there weren't water stations between miles 2.25 and mile 9! The lack of water and gatorade really took its toll on me and I had to break away from the pacer so I could make it to the finish in one piece. At mile 8, there was a table with two volunteers PICKING DIRTY WATER CUPS OFF THE GROUND, refilling them and handing them to runners. GROSS! I passed and kept struggling through the dehydration and heat. After grabbing an orange slice and gatorade at mile 9, I resumed my pace and finished strong :) I ran across the finish line and received my crappy "all access pass" instead of the promised medal but considering the water issues, I was just glad to be finished. On the positive, I was hoping to do 2:30 so finishing 12 minutes under my goal was a great accomplishment, especially with a somewhat shaky knee.

Next up is the flying monkey marathon, which is this Sunday. I think if I can pace it out and take my time, I'll be okay. I'm not going for speed or anything (just want to finish the 26.2) so it should be a nice run through the park. If my knee cooperates, it'll be a great day :)