January Recap and Other Miscellanea

Between my back/hamstring issue and some really busy days at work and at home, I haven't posted a January recap yet. So here it is, along with some other bits and pieces:

1. January was a great month! My trip to Houston was like Woodstock for runners, complete with a great fellow traveler in Kathy (but no mud or rain like the real Woodstock had). I watched the Olympic Marathon Trials live. The following day I ran the Houston Marathon and got a personal record of 3:53:28 (it was not the long-sought Boston qualifying time, so more patience and work are required). After returning home, I got my plan for running some shorter, hopefully faster races this spring. During the month I ran 103 miles--most of it tapering to and then recovering from Houston. And I turned 39!

2. Today I had my first massage with a great therapist named Kate. She will be doing my therapeutic massage work going forward. The part where she worked on my sacroiliac joint was painful, but the result is my overall pain is less. She told me not to expect any overnight transformation. My first dry needling appointment with a physical therapist isn't until March 6. Kate has had that done, as has Laura, a friend of mine at work. They both said it hurts, but that it really helps. I plan to take some Advil ahead of my first session.

3. A couple of months ago, I discovered a beautifully written and inspirational running blog called The Logic of Long Distance. Jeff's last few posts have been so stunning that I wanted to share the blog with you so you can enjoy it too. My favorite post was the one on January 23 entitled "Running as Aesthetic Rebellion." The last few paragraphs pretty much sum up why I run. Here they are:

 .....it's hard to explain the practical value of running in a world that seems deadset on winners and losers, discord, chaos, and strife. Its practical value is play--the impractical grace of beauty.

Stride by stride, effort by effort, we stitch the two sides of experience together, matter and spirit. We ride, we flow -- that's play; that's grace; that's beauty. Despite the politicians, the economy, the wild and alienated swirl of contemporary life, despite the fact that everyone tells us we ought to be doing something more productive with our lives, we end up making time to play.

We can't help it. It's called being a human.

4. On Saturday I'm joining Beth of Shut Up and Run on the local Virtual Run for Sherry. The evil act that robbed her family of Sherry hits close to home for many of us, especially those of us who run alone and early in the morning or have loved ones who do. If you're in the area and want to come, I would love to meet you. I will probably be doing two laps or so of the Reservoir, as I have to do a one-hour and 45 minute run. I will be leaving the iPod and the Garmin at home and running this one grateful to be a living part of the sky, the water, the dirt and my fellow travelers.

Here are the details from Beth:

Local Virtual Run in Longmont/Boulder:

• Meet at Coot Lake (west side of the Boulder Reservoir, behind IBM on 63rd St) at 9:00 a.m.
• Bring friends, family members, your pet pig, whoever!
• We’ll start with a moment of silence for Sherry and her family, then start the run/walk together.
• Feel free to  go as far as you’d like and to fart if you want.
• We’ll start by making our way around the Reservoir heading south. My guess is most people will go around the reservoir, which is about a five mile loop.