Time flies when you're having fun

Well....an era has come to an end. Yesterday was the last time that I'll ever march as part of the Spartan Marching Band, five years that seemed like forever, yet flew by in the blink of an eye. It was crazy this whole weekend because all of us seniors shared stories of the past 4 or 5 years...and now we're all going to go our own separate ways after graduation.

This whole week I've been trying to lay low and rest the knee because there was no way in hell I was gonna sit out this game like I did last week. Everybody knew about the knee, everybody kept asking about it, I always gave the same answer - "It's (optimistically) getting better...." - and more than once I mentioned the quote, "Pain is temporary. Pride is forever." I didn't care how much it was going to hurt, I was going to march my last game.

Overnight Thursday into Friday morning was the first time I slept without night pains since the marathon, but then I got "nervous" pains overnight Friday into Saturday and it persisted to gametime. I popped some Advil and hoped for the best. The march we do to the stadium is only about a third of a mile, but it takes some time...the knee didn't hurt at first but once I started to really think about it, it was pretty bad. My parents stand at the same spot every time, and I just thought to myself to just hide the pain until I get past them. Eventually we got to them, and as I was trying to hide the pain, I heard my mom cheer for me and my dad say his usual sarcastic comments to pick my legs up. I NEVER cry, but I honestly almost broke down right there. Both of my sisters played instruments too (in high school and at MSU), and ever since my oldest sister was a freshman in high school in the fall of 1992, my parents have supported us and come to just about every home performance...and this was the last time they'll ever have to do that. Plus my knee really hurt, so that added to it.

The game sucked, we lost 31-18 (I honestly didn't realize what the final score was for a few hours after the game because I was just trying to have one final good time with the friends I've spent much of my time with the past five years), but I'll always remember the final farewell. I'm gonna miss those guys so much. Time flies when you're having fun...

Today the knee felt really good. Who knows why....my best reasoning is that I'm subconsciously thinking that I don't have to worry about marching anymore so I can finally rest it. I didn't have time to ice it at all yesterday after the game, but I'm sure glad it's feeling better. I realllllllly wanna get back out on the roads. It's been a whole two weeks since I finished the marathon.

Oh and in case anyone was wondering, here's some stats from my training. It was a 16-week training plan but these stats will be about the first 15 since the 16th week included the marathon:

• Average miles per week: 21.93 running, 25-30 biking
• Largest week: 34 miles (week 11)
  
• Longest runs: 20 once, 18 twice
• Total miles over 16 weeks: 367.5

Ok, so by looking at that, I know I was unorthodox in the sense that I was low in the mileage department. The biking helped with some of that, but I still feel I can improve if I increase the workload a bit. Two things I know I didn't do enough of were speed workouts and lifting sessions focusing on the legs.

I'm ending with a couple quotes from an MSU football player whom I met a couple years ago during class. I didn't realize I had sat next to him until I was getting my stuff out of my backpack, and he noticed I was wearing a marching band t-shirt, so he struck up a conversation with me. He one of the nicest/funniest guys I've ever met, and what he said seemed to mirror how I felt after the game on Saturday.

"It hurts. I've been here five seasons and we only had one winning season out of those five. You come in here with hype and expectations and it just doesn't work out like you hoped. That's life." --MSU senior defensive tackle Cliff Ryan

"I always believe things happen for a reason. I believe I was here for a reason. Maybe someday I'll figure out what that was." --Ryan, when asked if he regretted playing for MSU