Bad Hamstring!

Week of May 5 ~ 11
38.5km / 23.9 mi.

Monday
Despite the fact that my right hamstring got sore right at the end of my run yesterday, I went out today and ran for about 2 hours up and down hills. Well, I had committed myself to going with a group of club members. And I did run very slowly. The hamstring was a bit sore, but not too bad, still...it was a stupid thing to do.
As proven by my half marathon "race" on Sunday, despite not having run for 5 days.

Sunday
Sendai Half Marathon. This is one of the main cities up in the area where the earthquake and tsunami were, two hours north of Tokyo by bullet train. It's a nice city and a nice race - I won my age group here two years ago.
So...I started out and could feel the hamstring right away - just a slight soreness. So I took it easy, running the first 4kms at about 4:45/km pace (race pace would be 4:10 or under). It didn't get any worse, so picked it up for 2k to about 4:25. At which point, it began to hurt more. Which meant my racing was over for the day. I just cruised along for 15k at about 5:20/k with slight pain, which didn't get any worse. But it was one of those feelings where you know if you try to run faster, it will be all over.
So I just enjoyed the crowds and the sights of Sendai. It was a nice day, too, quite warm - 23C at the start.
Pretty big race - 2,200 women and about 8,700 men. Popular marathoner Kawauchi was 4th. One of the Japan-based Kenyans, Maina, won in about 1:02.
One of the women in our club, Amanda Rice, who is a near-elite runner (2:39 marathon) and is a dentist in the US military, WON the women's open division in about 1:18. So that was fun. A group of nine of us went up there for the race.

I'll rest for ten days or two weeks or however long the hamstring takes to heal completely. Am scheduled for a 10k race on June 1 and a 10K in a triathlon relay on June 8, so I hope to be able to run those.