Mt Si Relay

What beautiful weather for the Mt Si Relay today! At least a gorgeous 70-degree sunny day can somewhat mitigate a 5am wake up call. I joined up with several other members of the CycleU triathlon team in the recreational relay. Our 8-person team has been decimated by injuries so our only expectation was to enjoy the sunny day.

My leg of the relay (#4) started at Remlinger Farms and headed out the Snoqualmie Valley Trail to Fall City. I completed a long run of nearly 5 miles last weekend and felt ready for the 5.5-mi leg. Then due to last-minute course changes the officials lengthened it to 6 miles. There goes my strict 10% mileage rule...

I quickly forgot about it as the excitement of running again in a race hit me a mere second into my start. A mile down the trail I checked my watch and whoah doggy! I clocked the first mile in 7:59, a bit off my 10-min/mile goal. I slowed way down but that first mile already did the damage. At the 3.5-mi mark the IT band tightened and then off and on between mile 4 and 5 I had to take some short walk breaks just to keep it in check.

The last mile of my leg turned downhill so I used caution since any semi-steep downhill grade really sets off the IT band. Surprisingly, it hung in there. The last half-mile flattened out and I sprinted the rest to finish up at 1:01:58, just 2 mins off my goal. I can live with that!

I have some worry about aggravating the injury. I did push pace and distance though so it's not completely unexpected. At least it recovered and I'm due in for PT this week. I'm pretty damn stoked I finished the 6-mi run though. My first in nearly 3.5 years! Now it's back to building some hopefully easy miles for the Rock 'n Roll Half in June.