Amsterdam marathon

I did everything right for the race. Carb loaded with good carbs yesterday, which helped me go to the loo properly in the morning. There was a race in the past where I didn’t completely empty my tummy and then after all the banana and water, I had to go once in a train station. This time my stomach was empty and then I had coffee without milk after a gap of 4 days and ate bread with jam along with banana and isotonic water about 2.5 hours before the race. Everything as recommended. Strangely, I went 5 times to pee in the morning. Wondering why that was so, but I was guessing my water intake is good and hence. When the race started, I was keeping good pace. Everything was feeling fine until the 13km point when my right knee started to hurt. That’s exactly what used to happen 6 years back which made me give up on running since I was doing many half marathons back then. Anyway, I sprayed volini and thankfully it got better and I resumed running normally. Then at 22km point my left knee began to hurt this time. I also started to feel tired. I was doing sugar every 45 mins till that point, but given the fatigue and knee pain, I started to take walking breaks between the run. This was a bad idea because my legs started to cramp up. And soon the walks became longer than the runs. By the 28km point I just couldn’t run anymore. Every time I started, my knees would hurt bad. That’s when I put on my knee guard that I was carrying as emergency as I used to wear them during the half marathons. It only helped marginally as the pain persisted. But I persisted walking. Tried walking fast and breaking into mini runs every now and then. But at 32km point I couldn’t run anymore, and in fact, was limping even while walking. The kms started to pass really slow. Nearly every km that passed, I wanted to give up. The knee pain was searing by this time. At 35km point, I noticed a Red Cross van and wondered if they could help me. As if the medic there read my mind, he asked me to come in and cool off my knees. It helped a bit, but the pain remained. I continued to walk. I was in too deep to quit. From 37km point, there were cheerleaders throughout the race and it was terrible to keep limping in front of them. They kept screaming asking me to run. And every time I gave in and tried to run, my knee would sting. Around this time, my right knee pain also returned. With both knees out, the kms started to pass by even more slowly. And the cheerleaders made me feel worse. Finally, 5:46 later, I limped across the finish line.