The Patapsco

I took Friday off and ran an easy 8-9 this morning with the UMBC XC team and coach. I was up at my Alma Mater for an alumni road race to benefit the team. Normally I would have raced the race...or at least run it at 75%, but with this hip I really don't want to do ANYTHING that might cause harm. UMBC has their conference meet next Saturday and, according to them, they could come out on top. Last week they had two guys sub-25 and another two under 25:50. Next week they will need a 5th man.

I ran with the team (just 3 of them plus the coach) into Patapsco State Park (picture). I miss the Patapsco. I ran nearly all my runs here during my 4 years at UMBC. It's situated only 1.5 miles from campus and contains a plethora of meandering trails. There are even more trails now then when I went to school. Some of them started as deer paths until mountain bikers discovered them. Now they've become running trails. We have "course records" for many routes within the park. Storms and other events have altered some of these trails and "retired" some of the courses and, in turn, the records. The hills in Patapsco are wicked; worse than anything in Rock Creek Park. Today, our pack of 5 ran avoided them and instead ran gingerly into the park and then back out towards the school.

I woke up this morning with a dull pain in my hip but it never materialized much during my run. I am still concerned that my hip might flare up again and am running below the red line. I'm also concerned that the constant start/stopping tomorrow while spectating for the Marine Corps Marathon might irritate the hip. I shall take it all in stride. I am still winning the war. This is not a setback. If I feel pain in my hip WHILE running I will have rewound my progress, but so far that is not the case. Press forward.