Has it really been a month?

Seriously, I cannot believe that it has been a whole month since I last posted. Where does the time go?

The family and I have been incredibly busy during that time. Alaric had a couple of t-ball games, and I have been helping coach. I ended one job and started another. We have been busy in the yard and around the house (we have actually had 2 minor floods in our basement during this period; one of which we still have not fully recovered from). We took a 4 day trip to the Wisconsin Dells with my parents, sister, and her boyfriend. And I have continued to train for the half marathon in August.

There have been a couple of set backs on the training, but I think I will still be ready to go come August 21. The first setback has been balancing my work/home/fitness lives. When the family is busy running around the house and the Midwest, it can make it pretty difficult squeeze in some workouts. Katie and I both got some running in while we were in the Dells, and let me tell you, running in other regions of the country is a whole different experience. The hills that we ran in Wisconsin were extremely taxing. The worst part was that the worst hill was the last 200 yards of the run back up to the cabin. It was horrid. The hill was so steep, that I was nearly at a walking pace to get back up. Then when I finished, I still had to cool down on the tremendously steep grade!

I have missed a couple of other runs, including one of my long runs. I am not entirely sure that scheduling was the reason for missing them. I think a part of me was pretty tired from work, and the Bike MS ride. Another part of me began to question the wisdom of running a half marathon (Katie still thinks I am crazy for trying to run a half in August). But I have a new found resiliency for the act of running. I am not saying I enjoy every last minute. In fact, some of the time I am trying to convince myself not to quit, but I make it through and when I am done I have a pretty good sense of accomplishment. Every Saturday is a new personal record for distance for me. This last Saturday I ran 8 miles and this Saturday I have 9 miles. Each week I struggle with the idea of running those kind of distances and then when I am done, I couldn't feel better about running it. It is all very bipolar, but it has worked for me so far.


I did have another situation that has not cost me any of my runs, but it certainly threatened to, and if the doctors had their way (what do they know , anyway), I still wouldn't be running. After four days in Wisconsin, Katie and I went over to the neighbors for some drinks and conversation. At some point early in the evening, I came to the realization that my right testicle really hurt. I blew it off for awhile, but then my wincing was noticed by one of our friends. Since I was born born without humility, I told them the situation. Everybody chipped in with their diagnosis, and in the end I went home and put on my jockstrap that I got after my vasectomy and everything seemed to feel better. I got up the next morning, ran my eight miles (with the jockstrap on) and jump in the shower. It was at that time that I noticed a significant amount of swelling and pain in my right testicle. I suggested to Katie that maybe I should have somebody take a look at this. After several hours at the ER and a sonogram, I was diagnosed with an inflammation of the epididymus and a dilation of the blood vessels in that particular region. Normally, this kind of thing happens in men that are still whole (sans vasectomy), so near as they can tell I must have had some sort of injury to the area. Between running, biking, and waterslides, I figured that a nutshot or two was not out of the question. They gave me some pain killers and anti-inflammatory meds. I scheduled a follow up with the urologist, but the er docs ask me not to exercise for awhile. I went home and took the meds and immediately began to feel better the next morning. so by Tuesday I was running again, and I have felt fine. There is still some discomfort, but until I have any real pain, I think I can keep running (I am gonna stay away from biking for obvious reasons).

So in a nutshell (pun intended) that is how my last month has been going. How was yours?

Bike MS, Part II: No Pain, No Rain

My teammates and I got another late start Sunday morning; again we started our ride at about 7:20am. I'd like to blame it on the fact that I was riding with a bunch of women, but I am not for sure a bunch of guys in 3 different cars coming from 2 different sites, both about 35 minutes away, could do any better. In the end it really didn't matter.

A few of my teammates were going to ride the 35 mile route; Cathy, Natalie, and I were going to tackle the 75 mile loop. Cathy would have to leave early because of another committment, but she wanted to ride with the big dogs as long as possible.

The ride was relatively uneventful. The weather was just about perfect; approximately 70 degrees and overcast, and we rode through some beautiful woodlands around the Kishwaukee river. Obviously, I do not know what Saturday's route look like in its entirety, but I don't think it was quite as picturesque as Sunday's. My teammates and I enjoyed each others company and conversations. When we got to the lunch rest stop, we were all feeling pretty good, and we took a nice long break to enjoy our sandwiches, fruit and cookies.

Sadly, Cathy would have to leave us and take a SAG vehicle back to the Convocation Center, but I am holding her to next year's ride in its entirety. Natalie and I got back on our horses and rode out for the remainder of the trip.

Back at the Convocation Center, Katie and the kids had shown up to cheer on the riders as they arrived.

They were there when our friends Rachael, Molly, and Alicia finished their 35 mile ride.
Elsewhere, Natalie and I were riding along, talking a lot about our fitness goals and home lives. We stopped at one rest stop that was inside an airplane hangar solely for the use of the local residents (and of course, on that day, a bunch of bike riders). And slowly the miles kept ticking by. Eventually the NIU campus came into view and we knew we were close to the finish line. Which was great, except that we got word that some bad weather was moving in again. We made a turn to the south and the wind was really hitting us in the face. That particular leg was only about 3 miles long, but it was a tough 3 miles. I tucked into my aero bars and hammered it out as much as I could. In the process, I got a little ahead of Natalie. So when I turned back towards the finish, I stopped and waited for her to catch up. I had ridden all day with her, there was no way I was going to race ahead of her at the finish.

We finally turned onto the driveway for the Convo Center and there were quite a few people cheering us on for that last hundred yards. Most importantly, Katie and the kids had their signs and homemade noise makers waving in the air to welcome me home. It was definitely a highlight of the weekend.

Natalie and I snapped a quick finisher photo before she headed off for a free massage.

The medals (the ones with the orange ribbons) were being handed out by a gentleman who would say "As a man suffering with MS, I want to give you this medal and say 'Thank you!'" It really struck a chord with me.

Katie and I grabbed a quick lunch, changed clothes, and started to pack the kids up when another downpour ensued. With the help of some volunteers and an extra change of clothes we finally got back on the rode to home.

The Wrap-Up: There are a few things I need to say before I finish this post out.

1. I am extremely disappointed that I did not get to ride the full 175 miles. Over the weekend I still road about 110 miles, which is a great accomplishment. However, because of the rain-shortened Saturday, I never road over 75 miles in a stretch. Considering that I had a training ride of 80 miles, I did not have the chance to set a new personal record. And considering the time committment that a ride of this length requires, I have no idea when I will be able to do it again before next year.

2. This whole thing started out as a personal fitness challenge to myself, but somewhere along the way it became bigger than that. I really began to consider the charity that I was riding for, and it gave me a tremendous amount of pride to be contributing to the fight against multiple sclerosis. I achieved my fundraising goal for this year (thank you so much to those of you who contributed to my efforts), but I think I will challenge myself with a greater goal next year. And given the time, I may consider more charity rides.

3. I have said this many times before, but I will say it again. I have the most amazing, loving and supportive wife I could ever ask for. Katie did so much for me this weekend that I could never thank her enough. She volunteered to cheer on the riders in the "Spirit line", she and the children made personal signs and noisemakers, and they made homemade chocolate chip cookies for the snacks a the tent. She also brought games and a pool for the tent. She entertained, fed, and enriched our children, while I spent hours out on the road. I truly beleive no one does anything all by themselves, and I could never have achieved what I did without the love and support of my family. That is why this blog is called Racing Home. Thank you so much! I love you with all of my heart!

And now with this chapter complete, it is time to move on to my next challenge. I have already decided what it is: a half-marathon in August!! (Seriously, August! Do you know how hot it is going to be?) But with the love and support of my family and friends, I know I can do it.

Bike MS, Part I: Rain, Rain Go Away

Note: So I figured out how to get my logo onto the blog, and I customized some of the layout; doesn't it look awesome! Thank you again to my wife and her friend, Kathy, for such an amazing logo!

The day had finally arrived. After all my training (not as much as I should have), all my fundraising (again, not as much as I should have), and all of my carb loading (way more than I should have), the Bike MS: Tour de Farms had finally arrived. Some of my teammates and I had stayed at the Murray mansion in St. Charles, and we got started a little later than we had wanted to. I had checked the weather report before we left and it appeared as though we were clear of any rain until about noon or 1pm. When we arrived at the NIU Convocation Center, headquarters for the Bike MS ride, they announced the big start of the race at 7am while we were still in the parking lot. No worries, we had all day to get our 100 miles in.

We got started about 7:20am, and there were plenty of riders just taking off with us. I was riding with 2 teammates, Cathy and Nat. This was my first time riding in a group, and I have to admit it was really fun. Having conversations with others can really make the miles go by quickly. We started off at a good pace, and we passed a few riders and we got passed by some others. By the first rest stop we were moving right along. We snacked and refilled our bottles, and were off again.

At this point, we came across a rider that was obviously a more skilled and experienced rider, and being the competitive person that I am. I took the opportunity to pick up my pace and learn a little bit about cycling. The other rider tucked in behind me, to draft off of me for a while. He rode just off to the left of my back tire and benefited from me breaking the wind. A short time later he returned the favor by taking the lead. He pointed out where I should be riding and little hand signals to indicate when and where he was moving. It was a very cool learning experience, one I would like to do again. And while I was learning these little bits about riding in a group, the other rider and I were flying; just about 20mph for several miles. Eventually I did hang back to rejoin my teammates, but it was very cool nonetheless.

Throughout the ride, we travelled on roads that were open to regular traffic. Many of the intersections were monitored by volunteer staff, to ensure the safety of riders while out on the road with other vehicles. When we came up to one such intersection, I could have swore I heard the volunteer say that the course was being closed because of bad weather. I questioned a few other riders to see if they had heard the same, but no one really knew for sure. When we got to the next rest stop, a volunteer had held up the entire group and was announcing that the ride was being paused do to some severe weather coming in. the volunteer said that we would be transported by bus to the next rest stop, where there would be more shelter (this particular rest stop only had 3 pop-up tents). Cathy, Nat, and I waited patiently for our turn to load on the bus. But soon the rumor began to surface that the race was being cancelled for the day, and the buses would be taking us back to the start line. None of us wanted to do that, so we decided to ride for the next rest stop, 17 miles away.

Ten miles into that leg we came to another intersection. The rest stop was to our left, but the volunteer was stopping all riders and telling them to go right and go as fast as you can back to the Convocation Center. The storm was only a couple of miles away and it was BAD! As i looked up you could see the wall of black clouds that had descended on the farm land to my left. Later I would ask my teammates for their forgiveness, but I just leaned over my new aero bars and put the hammer down. I was riding well over 20 mph the whole time. To start the storm was at my back but when the temperature dropped suddenly, I knew it was very close. It started with a few drops of rain, then the winds really picked up. I when I say picked up, I mean they were blowing harder than I have ever felt in my life. I struggled mightily to keep Roxanne on the road. Riders were falling off their bikes all around me. Fortunately, safety vehicles were there to attend to them, and I kept pushing. Then the rain started to come down in buckets. Eventually it was more than I could take, and I came upon a townhouse development that had a privacy fence. I ducked into the ditch behind the fence to get out of the wind. I could see a shopping center a couple of blocks away, and I called Katie to let her know I was okay. After couple of minutes, I ran with my bike on my shoulder to the shopping center and found shelter in a Goodwill store (the name was especially fitting for me at that point). I hunkered down in the foyer of the store for about an hour while the storm passed and called Katie a few times to let her know I was okay and to find out where my teammates were (thankfully they were safe as well). Here is a picture of the rain from the safety of the Convocation Center.

After about a half and hour, the storm had cleared enough for me to ride the last 2 miles to the Convocation Center. My family was there to greet me, and the place was full of people with stories about where they were and what had happened.

We waited around other riders to come in and we attempted to entertain our children. Eventually the organizers announced that riding was cancelled for Saturday, and lunch was being served in the atrium. A few minutes after that the beer tent opened up and my day of riding had officially come to a close. Here are a few of us sitting down for lunch.

I was disappointed that I did not get to ride the full course, but I was ecstatic that my teammates and family were safe; it was a truly harrowing experience. Riders had found shelter all over the place. My teammates found an open garage, others took shelter in a farmer's barn, and even others actually made it to that third rest stop. For those that remained out on the course, many of the volunteers continued to monitor their posts, so riders were able to get in a few more miles. But for me, making back to my family in one piece was victory enough for the day (and did I mention the beer was free), so I remained at the team tent for some camaraderie and got mentally prepared for the ride on Sunday.

Before closing, I must give a special thank you to the residents in and around DeKalb, who sheltered so many riders during the storm, and an extra special thank you to the staff at the Goodwill on S. Annie Glidden Road, http://goodwillnil.blogspot.com/, who gave me shelter, rags to dry off, and ziplocs to protect my gear for the last couple of miles; your care and assistance was invaluable to me.

My Wife is AMAZING!

I know its been awhile since I posted last. Things have gotten really busy between work (I found a new job; I start July 12), Alaric's t-ball (I help coach 11 four and five year olds once a week), Amara's second birthday (a 2nd birthday shouldn't be that big), and socializing (a wiffle ball tournament, a trip to the lake and 2 impromptu parties with the neighbors). I have hardly found time to train for the MS ride this weekend. I have however gotten in a 60 mile and 80 mile ride in preparation.

After the 80 mile ride my back was a little stiff and throughout the ride I found myself wanting to be a little more bent over the handle bars. I knew the perfect solution would be a set of aero bars, but I began to feel conflicted.

For those of you who know me, you know I try to live a relatively simple life. I try not to weigh myself down with material items (Roxanne, my bike, is the biggest personal purchase I think I have ever made, and she was pretty cheap in comparison to other bikes) and if I do make any purchases, I usually do them second hand. But this fitness kick has started to awaken the consumer in me, and in doing so I have become very conflicted. The more I ride and run, the more I think about new fitness toys and upgrades. Not just aero bars either; to enrich my riding experience I would love to have a GPS computer for Roxanne. I also need a sleeveless jersey for those summer months, and a new helmet wouldn't be so bad. I am seriously considering a half marathon in August, and I am going to need a new pair of running shoes and a couple of running shirts before then (my old ones are getting kinda smelly). The Nike+ sports kit is pretty darn cool, and would be great motivation and tracking for my run progress, and so on and so on. I have hardly taken a breath and I just racked up a thousand dollars in fantasy purchases. You can see how these fantasies may conflict with my desire to keep things simple. Truth be told, these are simple sports that I am participating in, they should really not conflict with my core beliefs. In order to run all you really need is shoes, and some folks do even believe in that (check out Born to Run by Christopher McDougall); to ride a bike all one really needs is a bike. But somewhere along the line, the thought creeps in that these things will somehow make me a faster runner or a better cyclist; maybe they can keep me more motivated over a lifetime of fitness, and the conflict grows...

I have expressed the desire for some of these items to my wife, and she is a great sounding board for my distress, especially when she opens the checkbook and shows me how little money we have left until payday, but she is also very supportive. She found a couple of running shirts at a garage sale and pick them up for me. They don't fit perfectly, but they're great for training, and better yet, they were cheap. Then she dropped a bomb on me last night.

My wonderful wife went out and bought me a brand new set of Bontanger Race Lite Aero Bars.

Don't they look like they were made for Roxanne. Katie went to the shop, talked with the sales staff, and found me the perfect set of aero bars for my long ride this weekend. Can I pick 'em or what?! And that is not all. With the help of some really good friends, Katie made personalized running shirts for the whole family; they come with a new Racing Home logo and everything.

They are awesome!!!! Her friend Kathy, who is a graphic designer, designed a logo for the website (as soon as I can figure it out, I'll have it permanently posted on the header to the site), and our other friend Lydia has a sister that works for Custom Ink, so she got them printed up.

Father's Day came early at our house yesterday, and I cannot be more thankful for my wife, our children, and the wonderful friends that we have. Thank you to everyone that helped out, and a special thank you to my wife. I love you so very much. Thank you for the incredibly thoughtful gifts!

What the Hell am I Doing?, Part III: The Ride

When I got up Sunday morning, I felt pretty good. My legs were a little shaky, but considering I had just run farther than I had ever in my life only the day before, I was feeling alright.

The weather report was not promising for the ride. They were calling for a high of 55 degrees with intermittent rain throughout the morning.



Katie and the kids came outside to see me off.


Considering my physical condition and the weather outlook, I decided to take a laid back approach to the ride. I had initially intended to ride 46 miles, but if it really started to rain or my legs were not feeling up to it, I would just cut it short. I also promised myself I was not going to push real hard. I wanted to keep my pace about 15 mph.

From the start, you could tell that the weather was keeping some folks away. The registration tent was nearly vacant and there were very few riders out on the course. A couple of miles into the ride, a father/daughter team from Mahomet came riding up. They were nice and we rode together to the first rest area. We talked about the route (I had probably ridden this stretch 10 times), and checked out each others gear. They were riding hybrids, so I wasn't too envious, but they did have GPS computers on their rides. I thought that was pretty cool, but when they told me how much they cost, I knew it was only a pipe dream.

When we reached the first rest stop, I got off to use the potty and get something to eat; the couple kept going. I evaluated how I was feeling and to tell you the truth I was feeling great. My legs had loosened up and I figured the food would keep my energy up.

When I got out on the road again, I took a turn towards the east, and the wind was picking up. I quickly caught up with the couple form Mahomet, who were wearing rain jackets. The wind was really slowing them down, as it caught their jackets like a parachute. When we reached the first cutoff for the 16 mile ride I knew I had more in me. The couple stuck it out for another 2 miles or so then called it a day. It had started to sprinkle a little and I think the daughter was not prepared for the ride.

So I continued to ride alone for the next 5 miles or so. I ate a kashi bar and drank a little Gatorade. I eventually caught u with an older gentleman that was taking a very leisurely ride. we chatted a bit and I continued on. Very soon i came to a Y in in the road, and the sign the riding club put up said to go right, but the painted arrow int eh road said to go left. A kid in one of the yards said the a couple riders had just gone left. I was very unsure if that was correct, but i went with it any way. Soon I passed another rider that looked like they had packed for a weekend trip. She had a saddle bag the size of a carry on tied to her bike and all kinds of "stuff" clipped on to her handle bars. she seemed overly prepared, but suddenly I began to think maybe I was under-prepared. I passed by her with a "Hello" and kept on riding.

When I came to the next town, I knew I had taken a wrong turn (darn kid was probably back in his yard laughing at me). No longer were there any signs about which direction to go, and I was coming up on a pretty busy state highway. I took out the map and got oriented; I waited for the rider that I just passed, in case she did not know her way either. We got back on the right track and eventually I left her pretty far behind.

I had been maintaining a pretty steady 15 mph, inching closer to 16 every so often. I did notice that it had been 20 miles since the last rest stop and I needed to pee. Finally, at mile 30 I reached the next stop. I used the potty again, and ate another banana and bag of trail mix. I refilled my water bottles, stretched my legs and was ready to go.

I only had 16 miles left and physically I was feeling great. So I decided to push it a little bit for the last leg. And when I say a little bit, I mean I buried the needle. I rode as hard and as fast as I could go. The rain began to pick up a little, so I was glad I was nearly done.

When I finally finished, I was very pleased. I had ridden 46 miles in a little under 3 hours. Overall there was nothing really that exciting about the ride, but it was fun.

And for the weekend, I could not have been happier. I completed my goals, in times that I was very comfortable with, and I had a lot of fun doing it. For the next few weeks I will probably stop running and focus solely on riding, since the 175 mile MS bike ride is less than a month away.

What the Hell am I Doing?, Part II: The Run

I had planned to get up at 5:00am on the morning of the race, but I was so nervous about the race that I finally just got out of bed at 4:00am, before my stirring woke up Katie. I could not get the thoughts of not finishing out of my mind.

I spent the extra time watching SportsCenter and doing some extra stretching. I spent at least 30 minutes stretching and another 15 minutes rolling around on the IT roller. I then had a good healthy breakfast with yogurt, granola, a banana, and some turkey sausage. I ate around 5:00am to give my nervous belly some time to digest. Katie got up about 5:30am, and after she got ready we began stirring the children. Before the babysitter arrived, the kids wanted to do some extra stretching with Mommy and Daddy.

Then Katie and I got ready to head over to the start line. Here's the happy couple!

We walked ten minutes up the road to the starting area. I did a few warm up exercises and peed before we lined up. I am very proud of our little community; there were over 600 participants between the 5k and 10k races. We knew a few others racing that day. Our next door neighbor D was running the 5k, as was my wife. I really started to second guess my decision to run the 10k. The idea of having this thing done and over with as quick as possible sounded nice.

Katie and I walked over to the start line. We put ourselves in the middle of the pack, and started getting our iPods ready. Suddenly, Katie was having trouble finding the correct spot in her playlist and we panicked. As the starter was giving his last minute instructions, Katie and I were struggling to get her iPod working correctly. Finally she said, "Forget it!" and the starting cannon shot off. The start of any race from the middle of the pack is somewhat anti-climactic. The cannon has gone off and the folks in front of us slowly begin to move forward. After a couple of yards, I realized that I was in the wrong section of the pack. The pace was excruciatingly slow and I had way too much nervous energy to be sitting in this crowd. I said to Katie, "I love you, but I gotta get out of here!" And with that I hit the side of the road and quickly worked my way up the pack to a more comfortable pace.

I wasn't 200 yards into the race before I realized that my leg felt great! And for the first couple of miles I was Mr. Friendly. I thanked every single volunteer I passed for helping out, I was thanking every cop for being there, and I was waving to my throngs of adoring fans (my kids and a couple of neighbors). Here I am telling my kids I love them.

And I realized something during those first few miles: Races are kinda fun. At least way better than running at five in the morning, in the dark, by yourself. I was doing great hitting my mileage goals, just about 7:30 per mile. As I reached the turn off point for the 10k, I was wondering how many of the people in front of me were running the 10k versus the 5k. I knew there were only like 120 runners signed up for the 10k, and I could see probably 20 people in front of me. So I figured maybe a handful would be turning right and continuing on the 10k route. Wrong! Probably 15 people turned off for the 10k. I know I should only be racing against myself, but I immediately thought, "That's 15 people I am already losing to!" As I turned the corner myself and hit the 3 mile mark, a lot of the fun went right out of me. Suddenly, the crowds on the streets disappeared and I knew I was behind quite a few other runners. Fortunately, the leg continued to feel great!

I got into a pack of other runners moving at about the same pace. We would trade off leads, sort of drafting off one another, but there was one girl in particular that did not want to be in the group. I'll call her Laimbeer, because with the way she was throwing her elbows around she reminded me of Bill Laimbeer (I also questioned if it was appropriate to be writing this blog in my head while I am still running the race). It seemed like every time somebody would get close to passing Laimbeer, she would start grunting loudly and her elbow swinging became more vigorous. And as you can tell from my less-than spectacular depiction, that my Mr. Friendly attitude was turning not so friendly; it was even difficult to turn on the charm for the volunteers. Eventually, the pack that I was running with got passed Laimbeer, but our pack began to dwindle as well. By mile 4 it was just me and another girl, Pinky (she was wearing a bright pink shirt). Pinky and I had a pretty good rhythm going, but I noticed at mile 5 my pace had slowed a bit.

I was starting to really feel the lack of training runs, and my legs didn't hurt, I couldn't feel them at all. Completely numb, and I thought, "I'm glad my legs know what the hell they are doing?!" When we hit the home stretch of the race, I was pretty well spent, and the last quarter mile is completely uphill. Pinky started to pull away from me, but there was nothing I could do about it. Finally, I got to where I could see the finish line, and all I could think about was just getting to it. I saw Katie and D cheering at the last turn, and D says, "Just turn the corner and you are there!" I told him later that was about all I could think about, "You're there! (Just don't die)" I was so gassed I got passed in the last 100 yards by somebody that I hadn't seen in 2 miles. But when I hit the finish line I felt really good, 6.2 miles in 47:49.6. Works out to be 7:42 per mile. That's a little more than my original goal (7:30 per mile), but considering some of the obstacles I had faced, I certainly feel great about it.

As soon as I finished some volunteers were asking to have my timing chip. I was so beat, I had to ask them to wait a minute while I recovered. Katie and I got some water and food and waited for some of the results to post. Katie had a great 5k herself, 5k in 29:59, and D finished his 5k in 21:39. In the end, I finished 30 out 134 runners, and 3rd in my age group. Here's the trophy:

Mission accomplished. Eat some food, get some, rest, because I have 46 miles to ride tomorrow...

What the Hell am I Doing?, Part I: The Injury

In my last post, I talked about giving the leg some rest and feeling good with my first 5k in several days. Then Wednesday I biked 30 miles, Thursday I ran 4.5 miles, and Friday I biked 43 miles. When I got up on Saturday for my last long run before the race, my legs felt tight and I stretched for a good 30 minutes. I was scheduled to run 6 miles. It was cool outside that morning, so I threw on some extra layers to keep my legs warm. Nothing mattered. I hit the road and at first my legs just felt tired, but as I continued my left leg began to really tighten up. I stopped just after I finished my first mile to do some extra stretching. But when I continued, the leg was still really tight. Finally, at the 2 mile mark, the leg felt bad enough that I was noticeably limping, and rather than risking another injury from bad form, I just started walking.

On the walk home, I felt demoralized, but more than that I began to worry if I would be able to finish the 10k race the next Saturday. I had not ran further than 5.5 miles and that was back in April. I was determined that I had to get another long run in. So I decided to rest for the remainder of Saturday, on Sunday I did some goood stretching and I would try again on Monday.

When I got up on Monday, I was not feeling good. While I was stretching, I could tell my leg was really tight, and nothing I did seemed to get to it. The IT Band had gotten so tight near the top that it felt like I had fallen right on the point of my hip; it was sore to the touch. After stretching for what seemed like forever, I went outside. I knew on my first step that things were not right. My leg was so tight that I was already limping, and I had not gone 100 yards. I started to get panicked thinking about what I should do. I thought about trying to push through it, I thought about turning around and walking home, and I thought about what the hell I was going to do if I couldn't run next Saturday. I got so panicked that my breathing went haywire, and everything fell apart. So I stopped and walked. I walked for another 100 yards, then tried to run at a much slower pace. As I shuffled my way down the road, I considered if I could run a 10k at this speed. I certainly did not want to but, if that is what it would take to complete the run, so be it. Finally even shuffling my way down the road wasn't working. My leg continued to tighten up and even started cramping. I finally decided to turn around and walk home.

On the way home, I formulated my new race week plan, and in the end, I decided to do nothing. No running, no biking, and very little walking. I would stretch every single morning and night, and I would pray to God that I would be able to run more than a few feet on Saturday.

Have I mentioned that I have the best wife in the world?

I limped through the day on Monday and Tuesday. My hip still felt like I had fallen on it, and my worries persisted. When I got home my beautiful wife brought me a present. She had been so concerned about my leg that she did some research with her teacher/runner friends, and bought me an IT roller. Actually she was so concerned that she bought two, so I could do a little comparison shopping. My wife is wonderful. For those that do not know, an IT roller is a very hard foam cylinder. You put the cylinder on the ground, then you lay on your side on top of the roller, and just roll back and forth over the hip/thigh/knee area.

I had heard that the experience can be painful at first, but as a guy I figured "Really, how hard can this be?" (It's a foam roller, for gosh sakes) Holy shit, it was some of the most pain that I have been in recently (and I recently had a vasectomy). I did not cry or scream out or anything like that, but I wanted to. After a couple of days of use the pain was not as intense, but it was still painful.

So for the entire week (or more) before my big race weekend, I did almost nothing. I stretched, I did my IT roller, and tried to eat a little healthier (only a couple of Oreos). And I was nervous as hell about being able to do what I had set out to do.

To be continued...