It’s been decided—I’m out of the half marathon. I canceled the hotel reservations last night. There will be no inaugural Rock ‘n’ Roll San Antonio Half Marathon for me.

It’s been nearly 6 weeks since the initial ITB flare-up, and after cutting back my mileage, taking extra time off, going to 7 physical therapy sessions, and getting some orthotics, I was not able to make it even 1/4 of a mile last night before the soreness on the outside of my right knee started up. And it wasn’t the dull ache sort of soreness that might’ve allowed me to continue. No, this was the increasingly sore with every step sort of soreness that told me the real sharp pain was coming soon.

So that’s it. I am incredibly disappointed, but it isn’t like I didn’t know that this was a distinct possibility for the last several weeks. It’s frustrating, sitting here feeling like I haven’t really made any progress with the injury, and not really knowing exactly what caused it to hit all of a sudden. Of course, I am much more flexible now, thanks to PT.

I’ve got my eighth PT session this morning, with 4 more to go. I’ll talk to them about options. I’ll likely take the next week off from any activities that are likely to cause irritation with the IT Band, and then ease back into things, again. It should be easier to ease back very slowly, now that there’s no target race. I also have another follow-up with the doctor around the first of December. If things aren’t any better by then, I’ll ask for further investigation, and perhaps an MRI.

Aside from not being able to run the race, my biggest regret is not stopping immediately when it first flared up, and taking several days off. Days off then would’ve been much better than hardly running for most of the last 5-6 weeks, especially if it got me to the starting line. I’ll learn one of these days. Other than that, I wish I had raced a  5K or two back in late September/early October, before this thing hit—to take advantage of my much improved fitness and speed. In the end, it is what it is.