You never knew me to be a runner

These days, I dedicate a lot of time to climbing and cycling (when I'm not doing some silly hike in the desert).. but if you knew me back in the day, you'd know that I used to be 110%-and-then-some about running (even doing the mile and steeplechase in college - poorly, I might add; haha).

But injuries, on-and-off since those college days, have kept me from doing any significant mileage/training in years; I've pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I need to keep it low-key if I want to maintain injury-free(-ish) legs, and, ultimately, maintain some sanity through (other) sport/activity. ;) That said, I do get out for a run every once in a while..

In fact, while visiting my brother this past weekend, I taped up my slightly sore right foot (the usual; it's an area that has given me trouble in the past) and ran my first race in a looong time - the Wissahickon 10k Trail Classic - in a great park just north of Philadelphia. It was some good bonding time, I think. ;)

Oh man, but even as I was treating the endeavor as a running "event" in my head (vs. a "race"), it was more physically demanding that you might think - with 90+ degree weather, and tons of offroad hills, it was a HOT and HUMID event to say the least; it was a buttkicker. On a side note.. for non-runners, you might think my mental designation of this being an "event" versus a "race" is just a matter of semantics, but, well, I'll just say that it's *not* and that, admittedly, it's an ego-thing that signals a difference in both intention-of-effort and expectation-for-outcome (i.e. it lowers them).

In any case, I think the wicked conditions helped me in the overall placing (34th out of 400-some) insofar that I'm not in particularly good running shape and therefore couldn't blaze a fast 10k on the roads, but the madhills and heat took their effect on everyone.. but I think they affected me less so. Physically, the hills gave a chance for some of my, um, beefy biking muscles to help out; and, mentally, my lack of specific goals let me just run and not worry about how the heat was lowering my time.. as it might with others worried about maintaining their usual pace.

Yeah, it was a good time overall (even if my thighs are still madsore today). And if you had any doubt to the quality of the event, let me say that one of the post-race foods was boxes and boxes of local pizza (in addition to the more-typical bananas and oranges and stuff). I'm glad I was in a place - mentally and physically - to enjoy 'dem slices!