M: off.
T: 7 miles.
W: 5 miles.
R: 4 miles.
F: 3 miles.
SA: off.
SU: Half marathon. 1:42:17. (11th AG)
So my ankle held up, but my glutes did not. But before that, the race organizer messed up with my entry and I was assigned to Corral C. Corral A and B require a proof of qualifying time. Apparently, they never received the qualifying time I sent (the result from the same half last year). So at the start line, I was surrounded by people who were slower than 1:46 half and 3:40 marathon. When the race started a groups of people who were moving at slower than 10min/mile pace were creating a huge human wall in front of me. (Why do those people start from the front of a corral? I have no idea.)
Anyway, the first mile took me 8:14 after having to navigate through many people. When the second mile went in 7:50 and the third in 7:40, I thought I was on my way to get on track. Then my glutes started hurting. This is a familiar pain that starts at the top of hamstring, and eventually radiates through the back of my legs if pushed too hard. The only difference is that I felt it on both sides this time around instead of just on the right side.
So I had to back off a little bit to get the pain under control, and continued on until mile 11. I picked up the pace a little bit in the last 2.1, but it felt like one mile warm-up and a 10 mile tempo followed by 2.1 miles of racing. The result was quite disappointing as it was 7 minutes slower than last year on the same course, and I was only 11th in AG. (1:39 would have given me an AG award.)
My drive back home was quite an ordeal, as I had to stop every 30-45 minutes to stretch my hip flexor. I don't know what the problem is. Since the pain is on both sides, it should not be a sideways tilt of my pelvis. My pelvis still might be tilted forward. All I can think of right now is e-stimulation and hip flextor stretches. I may have to invest in standing desk in order to prevent this problem in future.