A year after running my first race for the Running Raw Project, I found myself back on gorgeous Catalina Island off the coast of Los Angeles to compete yet again in the race that started it all – The Buffalo Run (Catalina Island Half Marathon).
Overall the race was a great success. The course was much more difficult this year as they added an additional mile of uphill (to a course that already had 5.5 uphill miles at a 10% grade), but I still managed to shave over 3 minutes off of my previous time. I had been training the entire month prior to the race in my racing flats, which are designed for racing short distances. These shoes are incredibly lightweight, but have almost no cushioning and ZERO support. I thought that a month of running in these shoes had made my feet, knees and legs tough enough to race in them. I was sadly wrong. Although the shoes were very quick on the uphills, the very steep, rocky and extremely long downhills did some serious damage. I had to slow down significantly on the downhill sections of the race, where I had excelled last year. By the time I reached the finish, my feet were solid blisters and I couldn’t bend my knees. So much for my experiment… There are no shortcuts. ** Post Script** My knees are still not fully healed as of May 1st 2007.
Click HERE to see race results.
to see images of Catalina Island from the trip, Click Here.
