Providence Half Marathon Recap — Jennifer Konikowski

Well, that... went. I got a cold Wednesday night and by Thursday night I had a fever. My fever broke on Friday, but my throat was super scratchy and my voice was pretty much gone (still is). On the upside, my plantar fasciitis seemed to be going away. Day of, I got up early, ate, stretched, rolled out, so I thought I was ready. Apparently not the case.

I haven't had knee issues in a while, but I started dealing with runner's knee during mile 2. I pushed through, trying to be grateful that I wasn't really coughing or sniffling. I managed to do the first 7 miles at mostly under 10 minutes per mile. I slowed down a bit for the next four, doing about 10:40/mile. I picked it up and ran the last 2.1 miles straight. The rest of the race, I actually managed to stick with my run:walk intervals. Despite being passed by the 2:15 pacer very early on in the race, I managed to finish at 2:15:18, which is 7 minutes faster than my training run. I wasn't able to talk at all when I finished because my voice was gone and I'm not 100% sure that I don't have bronchitis. One month to recover and figure out what went wrong and do better next time!