Well last night the Howard County Strider's weekly series race at Swansfield Elementary School in Columbia was cancelled because of the really high heat. I can't blame 'em, after running around in it for a little while, I don't think my racing time would have been anything to write home about so-to-speak, but you never know. However, I was able to meet up with some people my age, plus my friend David who runs a lot of the Striders' events, and run the 5K course just for fun. A lot of the people we ran with were interning at the Department of Defense and they were new to the area from all over the United States. David and I showed them the course. I ended up being one of the last finishers, comin' in at a nice relaxing 26:04 thereabouts for a little more than 5K (since I turned around and backtracked on the course a bit to make sure people behind me knew where we were goin' once our group got a little spread out). It was nice, the first time I have run since Sunday's Dog Days 8K Cross Country Run in Anne Arundel County.
Afterwards, I met up with a couple of friends to play a low-key game of two-hand-touch football at the Bethel Christian Academy in Savage (Howard County), Maryland. It was pretty fun, I'll admit I'm a little rusty in football since the last time I played was I think last fall... EEESH! Some people from my friend's church get together a lot to play either football and basketball and he invited my friend Brian and I out to play. The only thing was was that my left knew was hurting when I got home, it felt like I pulled a muscle or something. I put ice on it last night and decided to go for a nice easy-paced run this morning, because after I iced it it was hurting a lot, but I could still walk.
This morning I felt a little bit better, and I was surprised that I hardly felt it when I was running. I managed to run a nice easy 30:32 in the early-morning humidity, probably covering about four miles. I started out probably close to a seven-minute-per-mile pace then my last mile was about 7:36. I did better than I thought I would, however, it still hurts a little bit, but fortunately apparently not when I run (at least when I jog or run easily). I'm probably going to put some more ice on it and take tomorrow off. This Saturday, August 11, I hope to run on the Oakland Mills High School cross country 5K course for the PRE-Season 5K and 3K races (yes I may do both since the 3K starts about a half hour after the 5K). If you're interested, the 5K is at 10 A.M. followed by the 3K at 10:30, and you can find some information on it at: http://striders.net/races/prexc/2007/2007.prexc.flyer.pdf
It's not that hilly, back in 2005 I ran it in 19:36, and I sorta hurt myself on all those tight turns and switchbacks near the beginning and towards the end of the course, I think I reaggravated some tendonitis near my right foot I had back in 2004-2005. Then in 2006 I ran a 12:08 in their relatively new 3K course without the little turns and switchbacks. So this year I hope to start out a lot less aggressively and pick it up through the middle of the race, and see if I can get a ways under 19:30. If I feel up for it, I might do the 3K, but I do not really have that much of a specific goal for that one (yet).
Anyway, after this morning's run I went over to the Concentra Health Services in Columbia for a pre-employment physical for the Public School System of Howard County, Maryland, where I hope to continue my service in the upcoming school year (yikes, it's comin' up startin' on Monday, August 27, the day after the famous Annapolis Ten-Miler in Anne Arundel County, Maryland)! The physical went pretty well and after that I wandered over to Chick-Fil-A (I try to make it a point of havin' their stuff at least once a week, they're awesome) and for the first time I made it there early enough for their breakfast! I had a chicken and cheese biscuit thing and it was good. Of all the times I've eaten Chick-Fil-A, I had never tried their breakfast stuff. In addition I had a cheap bottle of chocolate milk and a brownie, both were good!
So yea, hopefully a nice run and "second breakfast" at Chick-Fil-A will help set me up nicely to run strongly at this Saturday's cross country race(s). I'm gonna try to post some more running event results and then hopefully get some more ice on my left knee that I hope will feel better come this weekend.
Thank you all for reading, enjoy :)
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