Dan's Run

My friend, Dan, is running his first marathon one week from yesterday (he's on the far right in the picture). A group of us ran with him yesterday to send him off with good racing karma.

Unfortunately, Dan has acquired a "stress reaction" in his foot, that may or may not affect his race next Sunday.

That's the thing about running marathons (or doing triathlons): you train for months and months and months and then BOOM, something breaks or twists or strains and you're now officially on the "injured" list.

Of course, non-runners will smile smugly and say  "I knew running was bad for you" (to which we will promptly think to ourselves "yeah and that's why you look the way you do too" - not a nice thing to say but hey, the non-runner started it!).

But we had a nice easy short run, probably 3 miles or so. We ran at Josephine Jones Park (aka, Jo Jo) which has a soft surface and good for anyone with bad hips, knees, ankles, or feet (which is pretty much all of us).

Dan was amazingly calm about the prospect of running 26.2 miles with an injured foot. I would've been whining relentlessly for hours or maybe even home in bed with a bucket of ice on my foot and a morphine drip line going full-speed. But no, he was calm and reasonable, saying what we all know to be true: that he will finish come hell or high water.  That's just how we runners are.

So, here's to Dan and the Colordo Marathon - rest up, eat well, and we'll see you at the finish line!