For Whom the Dogs Bark

40F, sunny.  Got in from Utah late last night, slept in and ran in the sunshine.  A very pretty morning.  Ran 6.14 miles in 1:00:24, average pace 9:50, no heart rate monitor.  Started slow and accelerated gradually throughout the run, slowest split 11:07, fastest 8:59.

When I woke up on Sunday morning after my "back-plant" on Saturday morning in Albuquerque, I could barely move, my body hurt almost everywhere, like I had been in a bad car wreck.  So I took yesterday off and the object this morning was to assess the damage.  At the beginning it felt like I was coming off my summer 2008 back injury, OK to walk but unable to run.  I pushed through and everything in the core area felt better after awhile.  My shoulder is apparently injured -- my arm felt like it wanted to be in a sling, but as long as I held my arms high I could run without too much trouble. 

Oh my goodness, all the snow in New Mexico and southeastern Utah!  Monticello at 7000+ elevation looks polar.  The snow is piled 8 to 12 feet alongside the road in town, and the fences outside of town are almost buried.  The red rock country is very beautiful covered in a white blanket.  My parents who live in the Arizona high country are also buried in the stuff -- the highest mountain in the area got 6 feet of new snow at the top, and there are a couple of feet in town.  I think this storm must be some kind of record for that area. 

If I still feel good I'll probably return to a regular running schedule tomorrow, and it looks like I can run the half-marathon with all of my siblings this weekend in Arizona, although I will probably be slower than originally planned.  I am very thankful to still be on the road.  Running is a gift, as they say.

48F, weather moving in.  Ran 10.1 at slow pace, but no heart rate monitor or GPS, which are on the fritz again.  Average pace about 10:40 per mile.  Still not feeling too great.  This morning it was my outside left hip, back again after bothering me some last week.  I almost stopped at 8, then decided to go on and it started feeling a little better.  Funny thing is, it disappeared immediately when I stopped, which indicates something like an ITB (doesn't the ITB band go the whole length of your leg?).  I'll have to do some internet sleuthing and see if I can figure out what it is.  My left groin also started out sore, but didn't bother me once I got going.  Neck and shoulder still sore from the fall and still have a little bit of a headache.  Other than that, everything is peachy.

I was accosted three separate times by dogs let out the front door by owners too lazy to walk them.  Incomprehensible to me why anybody would think that is OK, much less three different people on the same morning.  I am sure there must be something good to say about these particular dog owners.  Maybe no cavities?

56F, wind E 6 mph, cloudy and trying to rain.  10.10 miles in 2:00:01, average pace 11:53 per mile, low heart rate.

Despite the very average pace this morning I felt a lot better.  Hip pointer was still there but subdued, and shoulder and headache the same.  Almost my old self.

I've been running a month now since my last race and I don't think I've improved much.  The half marathon on Saturday will provide some feedback, but I suspect my time won't be as fast as I would have predicted a month ago.  Might be time to mix things up a little bit, but whatever I do, I need to make sure I can withstand running consistently at these distances.  The main thing is to stay on the road.

63F rain and lightning.  Ran 1.07 then ran for cover, rain is OK, not lightning.  Then it blew through and I went back out, 50F, wind NW 8 mph, still raining.  Total run was 10.11 in 2:03:43, average 12:14 per mile, low heart rate.  Not a good run, hoping for better ones to come.

Off to Arizona tonight to run London's Run tomorrow morning (1/2 marathon version) with my siblings.  Maybe I'll get to meet Burt. 

I ran London's Run today, the half-marathon version.  It wasn't quite a half-marathon.  They changed the course because of some serious mud and the new distance wasn't measured quite right, in fact it was short by a half mile, not that I was complaining by the time I finished.

Flew to Phoenix Friday night and met up with several siblings and nephews I had arm-twisted into running the race with me.  Turns out we are all over the map in terms of talent.  One nephew came in 5th overall, and one brother finished pretty late.  I was somewhere in between.

There were over 523 finishers in the half-marathon, and it was very crowded at the beginning on the narrow dirt track.  My goal was to get a Boston pace for the race (8:37 per mile) but when I saw the mud and the crowded conditions I quickly adjusted my expectations.  I was coming off a poor running week anyway.

I was a little encouraged when the first mile came in at 8:48, despite the conditions.  A couple of nephews who hadn't trained much took off like rockets and I figured I would be picking up body pieces at about mile 4, but I never saw them again until the finish.  Being smoked by untrained teenagers seems to be a common theme in my racing career.  I passed two brothers and eventually caught up to the third brother, who normally runs faster than me but has a bad hip right now.

I was struggling with the pace until I caught up with him, then all of a sudden everything clicked.  We talked and hit several splits below 8:30.  He stopped at an aid station and I told him to catch up with me.  Shortly after that the 10K and half courses split and he went the wrong way, running his own unique hybrid race.  (I did the same thing but corrected myself after a couple of steps -- didn't stop me from giving him considerable grief.)

Another theme of the day was pink.  Several women wearing pink passed me.  I was holding my own against every color but pink.  I managed to pass one of them and felt pretty good, but then she caught me at about mile 10, just like all the others.

But then just at that low point a runner coming upstream began yelling "Flatlander".  Yep, it was the one and only Burt, miraculously appearing to save the day.  We yapped away and before I knew it the race was over.  It was totally awesome for him to come out and pull me in, especially just after finishing a very fast 10K of his own.  Just a great guy, and got to meet his wife as well.  She took a picture of us which I hoped to post, but I am too lame to figure it out, so you'll just have to believe me when I tell you I really did meet Burt. 

I also got chicked by my sister, a fellow blogger who is making a surge this year.  We went back out for some cool-down miles after the race, which loosened up our legs and gave us a chance to look for lost siblings.

Here are my splits:  8:48, 8:39, 8:52, 8:16, 8:34, 8:26, 8:19, 8:27, 8:27, 8:45, 8:48, 8:51, 5:33 (8:48).  Average pace 8:37 per mile, which adjusted to a half-marathon distance comes out to 1:52:53.  That number is almost exactly half of 3:45:59, the age-adjusted marathon time I have to run to BQ.  So I was very happy to get this time despite my low expectations, and happier still to have improved since my last race, even though it didn't seem like I was making much progress this month.  This is my first half -- I didn't think I would like running this distance, but was surprised at how much fun it was.  I plan to run the Cowtown Half Marathon in Fort Worth at the end of February, and hopefully I can get my two teenagers to run that one with me.