I knew things would be interesting when a guy in blue jeans led the first 250 yards or so. You gotta love races in small rural towns.
This was the first time this race was held and about 30 people showed up. Only 10 or 12 were runners. I planned on taking it easy because of my leg, but after the first half mile the pain went away. I was unfamiliar with the course and as there were no mile markers, I did not have a good feel of my pace. The guy in front of me was out of sight. He won with an 18:43. And there was no one behind me for as far as I could see. This course was more hilly than what I was used to. But I was pleased with my effort. The course measured a little long at 3.22 miles. I finished with a 22:23 - 6:57 avg.
And something else you do not usually see at races, no one used a stopwatch to time the event. When I checked the list of final times here is what mine showed 8:22:23. When I asked about it, the race director said he started the race at exactly 8am on his watch and just wrote down what the actual time was when people finished. But I did thank him for putting on the event and told him I hoped for more local races.
Now for the bad news. I went to an orthopedic doctor on Friday. He believes I might have a stress fracture in my femur. A x-ray did not show anything, but he wants to do a bone scan to be sure. When I got home I Googled this and found some forums where people had the same thing. Their descriptions of the pain were almost exactly like mine. I had never considered this type of injury. I was thinking it was muscular. I mean how can a bone as big and strong as the femur have a stress fracture? Recovery seems to be at least 6 weeks of no running. Of course until I get the bone scan I cannot say for sure if that is what it is. I really hope not.
If anyone has any experience with a stress fracture of the femur I would love to hear about it. | 