Rob Murphy

am: Walked to the gym. Lifted. Walked home.

pm: 19 miles up Emmigration Canyon and over Little Mountain at 7:30 pace.

Well, I guess I'll have to add an item to my "bizarre reasons to miss a run" list.

On Monday morning at about 4 AM, I got bit by a spider while lying in bed. It hurt enough so that it woke me up. The bite was under my left armpit. So I couldn't go back to sleep and I got up and went to work. But throughout the morning I became more and more lethargic and I began to feel intense pain in my hips and knees primarily - and it was way different than hard workout pain.

So I ended up leaving work early and going to the doctor. They said I had suffered a "venomous bite" (duh!) and that it was likely a "paralyzing neurotoxin". You just love hearing that right? They said it was going to take time to "work its' way out of my body" and that there was nothing that they could really do other than give me a pain shot in the rear end which didn't really work. 

 So I went home and spent the rest of the day writhing in pain. Seriously, the pain in my legs and hips was really bad. Today it is about 50% better and I am back at work with some pretty good narcotic pain relievers. Probably going to show films in class today.

Nice huh? 

Just got my labs back.... apparently I'm not going to die. 

Chalk up another zero for me. Legs too achy and sore from the spider assault.

Six easy miles. Plus 100 push-ups. 100 sit-ups, core stuff.

I'm reading a great book right now called "Iron War" by Matt Fitzgerald. It's the story of the historic 1989 Ironman duel between Dave Scott and Mark Allen. That race was probably the best mano a mano race ever run with the possible exception of the Salazar-Beardsly duel at Boston. Fitzgerald is a really good writer which makes this much better than your run-of-the-mill sports book.

Scott and Allen have both sued Fitzerald and Velo Press for publishing this book claiming defamation or libel or something like that. Honestly, I don't see it and I think the two are more than a little thin skinned. So far, the book has increased my admiration for both of them and the controversy just made me want to read the book more.