Where did I leave off? The Disneyland Half over Labor Day weekend was a blast! Cut 15 min off last year's time (remember I only just took up running last year, so there was a lot of room for improvement). Then I jetted off to visit my dad in the Netherlands for a week, and got a few short runs in there - love running below sea level! From there, things kind of went downhill. I felt puny after I got home (actually took a sick day which I haven't done in years), tried to get a long run in the weekend after I got back before I was fully recovered, but it felt horrible - no energy and my IT band started acting up. WTH? I hadn't had any IT band issues whatsoever for over a year, and that was the other leg. But I had Lake Powell coming, and was really looking forward to that one and didn't want to cancel since this was my girls' trip. I limited myself to a few short runs after that. As LP got closer, I tried to rest, foam roll, stretch and take ibuprofen with the hope I would at least finish & enjoy the race.

So race day comes around, and many, many things went right - I finally figured out the nutrition/hydration thing, the weather was fabulously cool, my clothing choices were right on, the course was gorgeous, didn't need a lot of cardio effort because it was a mostly gentle downhill course. What did not go well was my IT band - it started getting cranky around mile 4 and was absolutely furious by mile 10, when I had to concede and walk the rest of the way. If it had been a training run I would have bailed & called for a ride, and much sooner. But there was so much beautiful scenery to enjoy, and it was a fun crowd there in the back of the pack! I don't regret doing the race, but would love to do it again when I'm healthy. My knee still hurts, so I won't be running for a while. Planning on a lot of strength training this winter to build up hip and glute strength to try & address this thing.

But I can highly recommend the Lake Powell Half - fabulous race in a beautiful setting and well-organized. Only about 1300 participants this year - what a breath of fresh air after Disney (which had more than 20,000). Here's a peek at the photographer's video.