I ran the News and Sentinel Half Marathon this weekend. It was a great course and I couldn't have asked for better weather. However, my race was less than spectacular.

I am a fitness runner. I do it more for my mental well-being than for the physical benefits. I've run 3 half marathons and a marathon. During the 2006 NYC Marathon, I strained my quadriceps at mile 8 and had to limp the next 18.2 miles to the finish. It was excruciating, but I finished.

I took a year and a half off of serious running and decided the News and Sentinel Half Marathon would be my comeback. I was pleased with my training leading up to the race and felt great on race day.

The morning of the race, it felt so good to be at the starting line with a group of runners again. I love the smell of Bengay in the morning.

Like any race, we were packed in like cattle at the start, and then we were off. I felt great at the beginning of the race. I started at a pace a knew I could hold and felt very strong. I was like Lance Armstrong charging up the hills.

All of the sudden when I got to around the 6th mile mark, I started to get a familiar feeling in my legs--and it's not a good one. My quads started to get really tight and then all of the sudden they felt like they stopped working. It was exactly what happened in the Marathon 2 years ago. I could no longer lift my knees like a normal stride and so I started this half straight-legged limp. I knew I had two options--bail on the race or push through it. I figured I would be much more equipped to handle the physical repercussions of limping through the rest of the course than the mental anguish of quitting. So, I had to test my mental endurance and try to focus on anything but running for the next hour.

One of the biggest things that kept me going was the crowd. I was so impressed with how many people came out to cheer. The support was so uplifting!

I finished in a significantly slower time than my best time, but the key part is I finished. It wasn't the comeback I was hoping for, but I guess we can't always get what we want. It's back to the doctor for these tired old legs to try to figure how to fix my ailing quads. Maybe by the time next homecoming rolls around, I'll finally be ready for my comeback!