New Year's 30 K Run

I ran 30 K on Tuesday night.
I ran in sock-like running shoes MUTEKI.
I ran a near-triangular route in my town four laps.
Each lap is 7.5 K.
7.5 by 4 makes 30.

The result was as follows:
1st 7.5 K: 38:38.11
Hydration & p break: 2:58
2nd 7.5 K: 39:10.34
Hydration break: 23.42
3rd 7.5 K: 40.56.05
Hydration break: 20.66
4th 7.5 K: 48.12.10
Total 30K: 2:50:39

The 7.5 K course is rich in undulation, preparing myself well for two races
that I am expecting at the end of January and in late February.
As you can see the first two laps were a pleasant run.
I kept my pace in check, especially controlling my pace in uphills.
If you increased your pace there, it could affect your performance later.

The first sign of pain appeared in my right knee,
shortly before I reached 20 K.
I wasn't surprised because that's where I would always feel pain
when I ran longer than 20 K in the past.
But yesterday I had to deal with another pain
which was in my right ankle.
This had been lingering for quite a while. A little longer than a month, perhaps.
It was presumably caused by running in the least protective shoes such as MUTEKI.
Running on concrete roads was also probably responsible.
I didn't pay much attention to it, though, saying to myself that it was part of the growing pain
associated with making a transition to running in the less protective footwear.
Plus, the pain during practice was usually bearable, often forgotten while dealing with other discomfort resulting from hard endurance training.
But yesterday it continued to distract me during the whole session,
and I considered quitting after running three laps.

I didn't, however, as I definitely wanted to cover 30 K three weeks prior to my first full marathon
scheduled on the last Sunday of this month.

The result was rather painful, and far from rewarding.
There was definitely a feeling of accomplishment;
I could have quit, but didn't, and handled all the pain with courage.
Of course the gain is not limited to psychological.
On a practical level, there were many gains, too.
I learned to minimize leg pain by changing my form, strides, arm swings, breathing even,
and all sorts of other things.
In a real race this is something you must do unless you decided to quit.
Now I know what to do if I need to deal with the same sort of pain and discomfort in real races.

But there was a significant minus as well.
My ankle now is so sore and painful, even after sleeping nearly eight hours,
that I am afraid I may not be able to do any decent training for several days.
I hope I am wrong. But I am mentally ready for the worst case scenario.

One reason I pushed myself beyond a hazardous pain is
that I had been down with a could since New Year's Eve,
and I wanted to make up for a shortage of training.
At this point I am not sure if that was a wise choice.
If the pain subsides within a few days and I feel comfortable enough,
I may put on regular jogging shoes to project my legs from injury
to do some speed-focused interval session;
I hardly ever experience any joint pain in interval training somehow.
Discomfort associated with this type of training is mostly cardio and breathing.
If the pain stays..., well, I really haven't decided what to do.
I may cruise the following two races instead of giving them all I've got,
so that I can condition myself well for the more important race in February:
the Ohme 30 K Road Race.