I finally met Andy at the start, and when he started setting up his watch, I realized I forgot my GPS pod in the car. Nothing like a 400 metre sprint to start a half, as I tore off to retreive it. Halfway through this sprint, my knee said HELLO! Oh brother...this is going to be a long race.
The horn went off, and off we went. I must admit, this being my first half, I kinda like the relaxed start...not the kind of chaos you find in a 5 km race.
Right from the start, the knee was present, but not an issue. That is until the first uphill and subsequent downhill. I soldiered on, hoping that it would get nice an warm, which it did. But everytime the surface went up or down, me knee would say REMEMBER ME!!
Hit 10 km at 46:36, so now my goal was now to get to the turn and steal some ice from the water station cooler for about a minute to ice the knee. My heart sunk when they were just that, an turn point. They couldn`t help me, and the wheels fell off after that. At 12 km I nearly quit. same at 13.4, 17ish, 19ish...it was rough. 11 stops over the last 11.1 km. Watched Andy blow past me at one point, and tried to hang with him, but it was no use. Anything under 5 min pace and my knee would scream.
Finally put an end to the disaster 1:49:10 after I started.
Positives: Got to meet Andy and Ken. COOL!
Learned that running while even a little bit off form is really foolish...While my knee is really fat and swollen right now, my back and left hip hurt alot due to favoring it for 15 km.
Negatives-Result, and then I had to bail on lunch with Andy as my knee was starting to swell quite impressively.
I really didn`t want to even write a report on this race. Its a little embarrassing. But you know what...we all learn from our experiences, and if someone can take something from this, then it served a point.
PS-Well done, Andy....your now up 2-0.
A 237 year old dead guy is dust and can't run at all! You ran, finished, respectable time! Now take care of that knee!! Congrats on the finish! 
