Many Words on Few Miles
Figure I need to check in here, although I don't have much to report on.
Running was going well through Friday. Made plans to run long with Deirdre on Saturday morning but had bad back pain on Friday night that kept me up in the night. This was more musculo than skeletal, and I was afraid that running might aggravate it so I took the prudent route and didn't run on Saturday.
That left the question of whether to run on Sunday, which was the third annual Guerrilla 5k, which I've written about a bit in the last few weeks and run in each of the last two years. Each year the G5K gets bigger and better, and this year they've added a medical tent (tent meaning its in a shaded area) where I described this weird pain and an accompanying rash. The astute folks manning the, well, sitting around quickly diagnosed it as shingles. This took me by surprise but it seemed like everyone there knew someone who'd had it, and were fairly certain in the diagnosis.
With that I ran the G5K. The course changes each year on the race director's whim, and this year we met at City Hall and plotted our own course to the turnaround, on the corner of Spruce and Front Streets, pick up the secret message written in chalk, and return. Me, Stevus and John Dubs ended up running together in what we figured was the lead, John took the ultimate shortcut in Washington Square Park, going right through the fountain that was on the diagonal and we made it to the turnaround.
"Ian is an asshat" was the phrase that pays and we lost Stevus on the way back. John and I then proceeded to coast in, not necessarily on the most efficient route, and shared the victory over the field of 15. For our efforts we shared a 5-DVD set of Joan Collins movies and a stuffed monkey. Somehow I ended up with both of these keepsakes. I will not disclose what happened to Joan, but can say that the monkey is now providing comfort to abused kids in therapy (no, not my kids).
A kickass post race brunch was provided by Jim and Liz, as most of the participants hoarded into their apartment and set their sweaty asses on the living room furniture, ate bagels and frittatas, and drank Mimosas. I would put it at the second best post-race brunch in Phila, topped only by the Four Season's effort after the Parkway Run.
Both John and Jim have blogged on this, and Ian promises to.
Anyway, back to my infirmities. I went online (you can too) and googled "shingles" and "herpes zoster" and learned alot. The doctor confirmed the diagnosis yesterday. When it all settled down, it basically involves putting up with some discomfort for a few weeks. The doc said it should not interfere with my running, though I have been treating it as such.
I am now at that point where its hard to regain the lost momentum, and I'll have to make an effort to do so. Next week I'm going on vacation to California, and will have a hard time keeping up my running there. I'm still processing all this, trying to take it in stride. That will likely be the tenor of my next few posts.
Running was going well through Friday. Made plans to run long with Deirdre on Saturday morning but had bad back pain on Friday night that kept me up in the night. This was more musculo than skeletal, and I was afraid that running might aggravate it so I took the prudent route and didn't run on Saturday.
That left the question of whether to run on Sunday, which was the third annual Guerrilla 5k, which I've written about a bit in the last few weeks and run in each of the last two years. Each year the G5K gets bigger and better, and this year they've added a medical tent (tent meaning its in a shaded area) where I described this weird pain and an accompanying rash. The astute folks manning the, well, sitting around quickly diagnosed it as shingles. This took me by surprise but it seemed like everyone there knew someone who'd had it, and were fairly certain in the diagnosis.
With that I ran the G5K. The course changes each year on the race director's whim, and this year we met at City Hall and plotted our own course to the turnaround, on the corner of Spruce and Front Streets, pick up the secret message written in chalk, and return. Me, Stevus and John Dubs ended up running together in what we figured was the lead, John took the ultimate shortcut in Washington Square Park, going right through the fountain that was on the diagonal and we made it to the turnaround.
"Ian is an asshat" was the phrase that pays and we lost Stevus on the way back. John and I then proceeded to coast in, not necessarily on the most efficient route, and shared the victory over the field of 15. For our efforts we shared a 5-DVD set of Joan Collins movies and a stuffed monkey. Somehow I ended up with both of these keepsakes. I will not disclose what happened to Joan, but can say that the monkey is now providing comfort to abused kids in therapy (no, not my kids).
A kickass post race brunch was provided by Jim and Liz, as most of the participants hoarded into their apartment and set their sweaty asses on the living room furniture, ate bagels and frittatas, and drank Mimosas. I would put it at the second best post-race brunch in Phila, topped only by the Four Season's effort after the Parkway Run.
Both John and Jim have blogged on this, and Ian promises to.
Anyway, back to my infirmities. I went online (you can too) and googled "shingles" and "herpes zoster" and learned alot. The doctor confirmed the diagnosis yesterday. When it all settled down, it basically involves putting up with some discomfort for a few weeks. The doc said it should not interfere with my running, though I have been treating it as such.
I am now at that point where its hard to regain the lost momentum, and I'll have to make an effort to do so. Next week I'm going on vacation to California, and will have a hard time keeping up my running there. I'm still processing all this, trying to take it in stride. That will likely be the tenor of my next few posts.
posted by seebo | 10:20 AM
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