1:03:11. Easy run to Buffalo Park. John Ball (our handy dandy ART guy) came up with his son, Jayden, and his wife for the weekend. Yesterday, I slowly and painfully got out of bed (I could hardly breath) and got ready to run. Then I took off my shoes because it hurt so bad, then I put them back on ... and repeated this about 5 times throughout the morning. The whole time John was telling me all the reasons I shouldn't run (had nothing to do with the pain). Then we compromised, he said, "I will write you a script to get an x-ray at the med center, and if your ribs are not broken, then you can decide to run later". I thought this sounded good, so I went for a walk with them instead in the morning. Then, all the runners in Flagstaff (except those that were racing -- Bix run was yesterday, which was the USA 7 mile championship -- Ryan Hall won a car -- though I think he took the money since he is sponsored by Nissan and the car was a Kia -- and Lindsey Allen of McMillan Elite was 5th woman and won $5K!! yea Lindsey) came over so John could work on them. He set up shop on the porch and we had a steady stream of people all day. Alicia Shay brought brownies and everyone seemed content (I did not have one since by about 3PM I had given up on running). I did get an x-ray but either they did not read it yesterday or they were not fractured, because they never called John. Then last night we went out to a great Thai restaurant (Fasil Bizuneh came along too, he and John ran at Arizona State together way back when) -- it was great. I feel a little better today, my face looks horrible but what the hey, I still can't roll over on my right side without screaming but I am moving much better than yesterday. So, I decided to try a run. It basically feels like I am running with a constant side-stitch that won't go away, but it only brought tears to my eyes when I breath hard or go downhill. I ran over to Buffalo Park and it was fine as long as I ran slow and did need to breath hard at all. Apparently the pace that I can essentially run with my nose and not my mouth (which is my poor womans guide to heart rate and effort) is 9:05 on the hills and about 8:55 on the flats. I am icing my poor ribs/muscles now, but I am convinced that nothing is broken, just bruised. So, I am hoping it will heal in a couple of weeks (or even faster if I don't overdo it) ... For now, I am just happy to run at all. Side-stitch level pain is ok ;-). I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the weekend, CONGRATS to all of you on your impressive races this weekend!! Allie just rocked her marathon, and man oh man you people who ran Des News have posted some amazing race times!! I hope I can catch up on your blogs next week (as soon as I finish getting my students poster done and this one last grant finished up). Just a little update from the "Flagstaff contingent"
BIG congrats to McMillan Athletes Lindsey Allen (5th at Bix - USA 7 mile championship), Ian Burrell (6th) and Andrew Carlson (9th). Huge 3rd place to Stephanie Rothstein at the Wharf to Wharf race this morning in Santa Cruz (31:43 for the 6 mile race) -- she was the first American and missed 2nd place by 10 seconds!! More impressive, this was her first race back after 13 months and she is not even in race shape yet!! Expect big things for her going into her marathon debut this year! Finally, Kelly Liljeblad (coach for McMillan Running) is currently in 5th place at the Ironman Lake Placid!! She was 6th coming off the bike, and since she is a 2:31 marathoner, the run is her strongest event - early in the marathon she has overtaken the 5th place female and might be on her way for a top 3 finish if she runs as strong as she has in the past!! wow! (UPDATE, Kelly got 5th. she struggled at the end, but still had a great showing!)
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