Man Pain and Getting Older

For the last 13 weeks, Cindy and I have been training for the Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon on Saturday, November 14. We had originally planned to run the Cape Cod Marathon, which is tomorrow, but we decided we couldn't afford the trip. All this weekend we've been thinking of our friends on Cape. There's the Friday shirt folding, goody bag stuffing party and pizza at the Lawrence School. Then on Saturday we have Aunt Pam's waffles for breakfast, then we pick up our race packets at the expo, tour the course, have fried rice for lunch, then head back to Chris and Pam's for a relaxing evening topped off by pasta for dinner. One year we went down to Woods Hole on Saturday night for a string quartet concert. Sunday would be race day. Nothing like New England in the fall, truly a special place.

So things didn't work out that way this year. However at Chickamauga, we have a chance to do something special. Two of our church friends asked us to help them train and so we are all competing together. The date is special also. November 14 this year will be the 39th anniversary of the Marshall University plane crash. We wrote the athletic department at Marshall, and they sent us official track singlets (tank tops, in layman's terms) to wear during the race. It will be a very emotional day. We are... Marshall, to say the least. To top it all off November 14 is Cindy's late father's birthday. Talk about emotion. Wow...

The fly in the ointment for this training cycle has been my injuries. I've been dealing with tendinitis in my left foot for about two months, and a couple of weeks ago I noticed some pain in my right hip. This hip pain has slowly gotten worse, and on my last two long runs it has affected me severely. I'm usually ok for the first four or five miles, then the pain starts deep in my right groin area and slowly expands outward, until eventually it wraps all the way around to my lower back. Climbing makes it worse, I feel like I'm literally dragging my right leg up the hills. At this point I'm not sure how this will impact my performance on race day. Back on October 3rd, we joined the Chattanooga Track Club for a group training run and preview of the race course. I ran well that day, a 12 mile loop. The pace was slightly faster than race pace and I felt good afterwards and recovered well, so I know if the hip behaves I should do well.

No matter how bad the pain gets, though, I won't quit. We'll be wearing the Marshall colors and I won't give up. Limping across the line is a distinct possibility, but crossing the line is a definite. Music is perpetual, lately so is the pain.

Love to all.