Soccer and Marthon

On Saturday, we all went to Cologne for the Cologne-Stuttgart soccer game.  Honestly, after getting six hours of sleep in the two days prior to Saturday, I hard a seriously hard time getting out of bed to make it to the train station.  After weighing my options, I decided that I should go solely for the experience.  I’m so glad I decided to go because I ended up having so much fun.  I had been to soccer games before back in the states but they didn’t compare to this at all.  First, the amount of people there was incredible.  I knew soccer was a big deal in Europe but I definitely wasn’t prepared for that.  I loved the amount of spirit that the crowd had and it was overwhelming to see their love of the sport and of their team.  After the game, Kathryn and I slowly made our way back to Bonn on crowded trams and trains.  We went to bed early that night in order to prepare ourselves for the half-marathon the next day.

To say I was nervous would be an understatement.  When I signed up to do the half-marathon, I was a little skeptical on if I would be able to finish or not.  I have had a knee injury for the past four years or so that has limited me every so often.  On top of that, the most I had ever run at one time before this semester was a 5K.  Once the race started, I felt pretty good.  I had taken Tylenol beforehand and I wore my brace in anticipation of my knee hurting.  Despite this, my knee almost immediately started bothering me.  I pushed through it at first, hoping the pain would just go away once I got used to running.  At about kilometer 9, I had to drop back from the group I was running with to give my knee some time to recuperate.  At kilometer 12, I had to stop because I couldn’t walk anymore.  I ended up riding in an ambulance to the finish line where there were medical tents.  I waited there for a while, icing my knee, then I went out to look for our group.  Choosing to stop was a really hard decision for me.  I played club and varsity soccer in high school, so I was used to pushing past the pain.  When I saw the 12K sign and realized that I was only just over halfway done, I decided that it wasn’t worth making my knee worse.  My consolation is that I tried my best.  Maybe one day I’ll be able to do a half-marathon all the way through.