Kentucky Pain

I'll keep this short. If you read my training log you know that I pulled my hamstring just before the four mile mark and had to hobble my way to the finish at Club Nationals. Not what I hoped for but I never considered dropping out. Cross country is a team sport and every man counts. Team Ohio ended up 7th out of 18 teams in the 40-49 division. Bella took this photo sequence of me hobbling and this pretty much what it was like for me over the last 2 miles. I went from running 6:10 pace on the hilly and muddy course to something like 15:00 for the final two miles. Most pain I've ever felt in a race! Fortunately the injury isn't too bad and I should be ok to do some easy running in about a week.

Had to borrow a cane from my wife post-race to walk around.

Finally, here's a pretty good photo of me early on in the race pre-injury:

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17:38 and 30,000 words

This past Saturday I ran my fastest 5K of the year at the Reindeer Run in Lakewood, hitting 17:38. The weather was perfect -- low 40s -- and the field was really deep. I was only 19th overall. Usually sub 18 is good for top 5 in these parts. This was more like a race in the 1980s when less people competed, but the people who did run tended to be really fast. My pace was pretty even. 5:38 for the mile (might have been a tad short), 11:30 for 2 miles (that seemed about right), and  17:05 for 3 miles with :33 to the finish. Next up is Club Nationals cross country on Saturday in Lexington, KY. I've just been running easy this week. The weather is looking pretty ideal -- low 50s -- though there's a chance of showers, which might make for a muddy course.

In other news, I've hit 30,000 words on Velocity Boy and I think I'll have a 'rough' rough draft finished by Christmas. I feel like I'm maybe 2/3 of the way through. I've been writing about music all my life, but this is my first stab at fiction. As mentioned in another blog post, Velocity Boy is set in the mid-1980s and chronicles the adventures of a rock 'n' roll obsessed 20-year old college student named Drew who goes to England for a study abroad program. Will he eventually find peace, love and understanding in a haze of alcohol, soft drugs and casual sex?  I'll be posting a Velocity Boy playlist soon. It will be a selection of tunes by artists Drew sees in concert or just happen to be playing in the background when he's at bars, parties or in girls rooms.

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