Planned to run directly up into city creek canyon today, but discovered there was a freedom fest 1/2 marathon running from Emigration Canyon, along 11th Avenue, and then culminating at the Capital. I ended up running by a lady named Shannon who was in the race, and I decided to run with her to the Capital, then yelled "GO SHANNON, GO!" when she took off sprinting near the finish line. Then I turned around and ran back to city creek, ran up to the 1 mile marker, then ran back home. It was nice running up city creek because my friend Mary (who I haven't seen in a couple years) biked past me, recognized me, then biked along side me and talked, while I pushed the pace to keep up with her.
So ends my first week back running after a 6+ week layoff. No sciatica nerve pain while sleeping, sitting, walking, etc., anymore. Still feel it a bit in my right glute while running, especially the first couple miles of a run. My endurance seems fine, but it is hard to run at a decent pace because the glute pain increases if I lengthen my stride. I've had to run the first 1/2 of my runs really really slow even though they are downhill. I can run uphill without as much pain (due to using a shorter stride uphill?), and since the second 1/2 of my runs are mostly uphill, I've been pushing a lot harder on these sections with fartleks and tempo running to try to improve my fitness level to what it was a couple months ago.
Don't know what to do about the upcoming Deseret News 10K. I'll probably still run it, but it will be darn hard to get a good time because I'll have to run those downhill miles at the beginning a lot slower than I'd like. | 
