Snap! I felt a pop at the back of my knee as I reached mile five along one of the most scenic sections of single track trail I’d ever traversed. Under different circumstances, I would have immediately slowed to a walk, but with several miles to go on my Moran Constitutional Relay team’s penultimate leg, there was no time to waste. I jog/hiked the uphill sections, and skip-hobbled the flats and descents for 45 uncomfortable minutes, keeping my knee bent slightly so it wouldn’t bust backward, which was my knee’s-never-been-hurt fear. A woman in a blue Seattle Marathon shirt passed, asked if I was okay. I shared the short version as she faded away. Runners who’d backtracked after finishing coaxed me through the last half mile with promises of “You’re almost there.” Three and a half miles after my knee went bad, I stepped off the trail and onto the pavement at the busiest of the race’s six exchanges: Mountain Lake Landing. I placed our team’s chip in a slot atop a sign, sloppy Operation Game-like, passed it on to Tiffany, our team’s last runner, and began to limp for reals.

To read Julee Rudolf’s complete blog, go to https://juleerudolfblog.wordpress.com/2018/10/17/moran-constitutional-relay-2018/