Every Race is an Adventure!

December 25, 2024

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Location:

Orem,UT,USA

Member Since:

Apr 03, 2006

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Age Division Winner

Running Accomplishments:

HS/COLLEGE:
mile: 4:56, 2 mile: 10:21 (1978)
marathon: 2:52 (St. George 1982)
OLD MAN (20+ years later):
5K: 19:53 (Nestle/Art City Days 5K 2007)
10K: 39:55 (Spectrum 10K 2008)
half marathon: 1:26 (Hobble Creek 2008)
marathon: 3:07 (St. George 2007)

Short-Term Running Goals:

Get back to a BQ marathon time (currently 3:40).

Long-Term Running Goals:

Have fun running, keep fit, and fight middle age spread. Run consistently and injury free. Maintain a healthy balance between running and other life priorities. Encourage my ever-aging running buddies to keep running so we can continue to share runs on the trail instead of rocking chairs.

Personal:

Blessed to be married to Karen for 30 years. We have six children (4 daughters/2 sons) ages 16 to 30, and one wonderful granddaughter.

Favorite Blogs:

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Altra Instinct 1.5 Lifetime Miles: 83.50
Altra Lone Peak 1.5 Lifetime Miles: 21.80
Saucony Guide 7 Blue 2 Lifetime Miles: 376.95
Saucony Fastwitch 6 Lifetime Miles: 200.05
Saucony Guide 7 Black 1 Lifetime Miles: 271.15
Easy MilesThreshold MilesMarathon Pace MilesTrack speed mileageHill mileageTotal
6.750.000.000.000.006.75

I was planning to get in a couple of miles before meeting up with Larry and Wayne but I got out a little later than planned. I still thought  I might be able to get 1.5 miles in, but I ran so slowly that I only got in 1 mile.

We met up and wandered the local streets on a variation of my Serpentine route another 5.75 miles. During these meanderings there was a lot of great conversation. I was so engrossed at one point that I didn't notice the bad patchwork on the road and stepped on the edge of some asphalt that was sticking up. Last Friday I realized I'd turned my ankle on a rock in the road when I suddenly started feeling pain in my ankle. This time I realized something had occurred when my body slammed onto the road.

I followed my normal strategy of immediately getting up and trying to run it off. Once again it worked out, although I wasn't sure at first. I've rolled my ankle so many times that now one of the first things I do is rate it on a 1-10 scale. Last Friday's was a high 3. At first I rated today's a high 4 (same ankle by the way), but after a block or so it felt much better so I downgraded it to a 3. Based on the small amount of pain I felt at the end of the run and now, I might even rate it a high 2. I'll feel a little pain for a few days but I don't think it will affect my running. I guess one of the advantages of so many sprains is that they don't do quite so much damage anymore. I guess the tendons are already stretched out.

I don't normally fall when I roll an ankle. The neat thing about falling is being able to show your bloody wounds to your wife and kids when you get home. It's kind of macho I think, even though this morning it wasn't all that glorious (or gore-ious). I tore some skin off my left palm and scraped my left knee. I think it would have been worse but I was wearing knit gloves and my long running pants. The pants are damaged a little, but it did not tear a hole in them. The gloves didn't seem damaged at all.

All in all I think I was pretty lucky. In recent years I've been reluctant to play basketball because I've been afraid of turning an ankle. After Friday and today, I'm thinking maybe basketball is the safer sport. I'll sure be glad when it gets a little lighter for my morning runs. It obviously wasn't runners that decided to expand daylight savings time.

Comments
From Kerry on Tue, Mar 18, 2008 at 14:32:45

I'd be inclined to scold you for not running with a headlamp, but I usually wear one and I've taken a couple of spills myself (possibly due to the fact that I rarely turn it on). A seeing-eye dog might be a bit expensive, but worth it in the long-term. In the meantime, just let Wayne and Larry run ahead of you :)

From Paul T on Tue, Mar 18, 2008 at 14:58:04

A headlamp might have helped, but the streets in Orem have street lights so it's not completely dark, just shadowy in places. And Wayne and Larry were slightly ahead of me as we took the corner, but they apparently ran down the center of the bad road patch and I stepped on the edge.

Oh well, I've heard that success is not measured by how many times you fall, but how many times you get back up. Let TRIES = "number of tries" and FALLS = "number of falls". We can and should try to minimize FALLS, but FALLS = 0 will rarely be true. We can determine, however, that TRIES > FALLS will always be true.

From Kim on Tue, Mar 18, 2008 at 15:16:43

Sometimes continuing on after a FALL is even better than if there were no fall at all! Some FALLS can be really hard to get up from, but well worth it if you do it! Thanks for another lesson in life, Paul! I'm glad there weren't a bunch of gore-enous with it this time.

From Tom on Wed, Mar 19, 2008 at 15:31:08

Always good lessons to be learned on Paul's blog!

I'm glad you didn't seem to be any worse for the wear today on the noon run.

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