My Hunger

I forget if I have already used this title... i seem to remember there being an incident with wendy's which had a similar topic... I will check later and report back. (don't hold your breath)

after getting some sort of stomach thing this weekend and eating nothing but dry waffles and jello (thanks baby) for 36 hours, I finally feel the long lost pangs of hunger... which means I am almost back to normal... which is a term I obviously use loosely. because of this stomach thing, I totally missed my scheduled 13 mile run that i was planning this weekend. That puts my last two attempts at long runs, one of 12 and one of 13, to a run of 10 miles and no run at all. So if I keep the same ratio between planned training/actual training and planned marathon mileage/actual marathon mileage, I will be able to finish about 10.48 miles of the race. Have no fear though... that will be the whiniest 10.48 miles you have ever heard run. i can't type today... every sentence sounds like a jarbled mess. ohh well...

I finally went to the orthopedist last week about my right ankle and he suggested wearing some big springy orthotics in my normal shoes. I have been wearing them for about a week and I haven't felt any improvement in my ankle... yet. I am supposed to go back sometime in october, so it may take a while for it to improve. It has something to do with the fact that I walk like a 300 lb man... and i way over-pronate, which pinches some tendons on the outside of my ankle. As you may or may not know, I don't generally trust doctors, but this guy gave me a fairly good explanation of what was happening, and was willing to sit through all of my ridiculous questions.

and I'm spent...

My No Frills 10k

This past Tuesday, I ran my first race, the South Jersey Athletic Club No Frills 10k, since the double trouble, about a month and a half ago. During this month and a half, I think I took two weeks off training so I had a feeling this race was going to be a huge step back. But i needed to get in some mileage and I need to start getting back on the horse if my NYC marathon experience is going to go well.

The race started right across from my girlfriends apartment building, so that guaranteed me at least one fan. It turns out, the throngs of other fans I was expecting never existed. Who would have thunk it. As has become a mantra for my most recent race experiences, i started off this race too fast. About halfway through the first mile, i realized i was in trouble at my current pace and slowed down a bit. About this time I got smoked by a guy pushing a stroller with a kid in it... seriously... but he was hella fast so i don't feel too bad about it.

The last few miles of the race were pretty uneventful... i got settled into a pace and in the last mile, one gentleman was trying to pass me, so I let him and then latched on to him. he pulled me all the way to the finish and then I outsprinted him in the last 200 meters. that is one of the great feelings when racing... kicking it in at the end and having the other person give up. even though I didn't know him, it was still a lot of fun for me. I guess that is my competitive spirit. my time ended up being 44:41 which is less then spectacular, cuz it is a 7:12 pace, which is 12 seconds slower per mile than my best 10 mile race which was only a short 3 months ago. obviously I have my work cut out for me in the upcoming months if I want to get ready for NYC. as soon as I get these damn stitches out, I am really going to focus on my running!! the running bug has hit me again... yay!