Sunday, October 31, 2010

Send in the Marines


First, running. My 30 minute run on Saturday went okay. It was great to run with the team again (about 10 guys there yesterday) and great to run on the Towpath on a fine fall day, but I was annoyed that my right hammy (one certain part) was still bothering me. This is either my hammy pain dissipating and centered around one pinpoint or it's injury related. I THINK it's the former, but it makes me nervous since it is close to the same area where I had all that trouble so many months ago. It's not a "deal breaker" at this point by any means, it's simply something I am monitoring. 

I ventured down to Georgetown on Saturday night for some Halloween revelry. Costumed vixen in WW2 military pinup attire highlighted the evening...yes. Wandering the streets in costume (me a 19th Century British Gentleman Explorer complete with head to toe khaki and pith helmet) is always a fun treat. My colleagues, who will rename nameless in this public forum, seemed to melt into streets throughout the evening and soon I found myself wandering M Street alone in the early morning hours looking for something to eat. A steak and cheese from Subway did the trick. Soon thereafter, I burrowed into a fox den on the floor of the Georgetown Running Company (this was by design before the evening began) and made a pillow with a pile of socks that people use when trying on new shoes. 

I woke EARLY the next morning and found that the promiscuous pussy cats and voluptuous bunnies on M Street had been replaced by the United States Marine Corps. It was like night and day. Actually, it was. Marines had taken over and were everywhere; building water stops and check points, closing streets and moving things from this way to that. Either we were under attack or it was time for the Marine Corps Marathon. I rubbed my eyes and stretched my arms and realized I desperately needed a coffee before I could do anything else. Just after sunrise, an assortment of GRCers had arrived.  Jets buzzed the Potomac and helicopter gunships thundered overhead. We walked across the Key Bridge and saw runners pass just after mile one. By this point I was fired up and was running back and forth like a maniac between different friends on the course. After seeing the group pass us twice more, I hopped on a million dollar bike and followed Chicken Tender down the marathon course. I haven't ridden a bike for 40 years, but I quickly got my bearings and I had a hella good time bombing down the empty streets of the capital. I am not sure how good bike riding is for stress fractures of the crotch, but the doctor said it was fair game. It was a lot of fun riding alongside teammates on lonely Hains Point and it was just awesome to experience the marathon without running it and without standing in one or two spots and cheering. I wasn't suppose to run today, but I found myself running alongside Charlie Ban for a mile and half here or with Matt Ernst for a quarter mile there.

Eventually the lack of sleep, food and hydration took its toll and it was time to go home no worse for the wear. 

5 comments:

RM said...

Probably your best blog post ever.

Mostly because it had very little to do with running, and more to do with enjoying life.

While it's never fun to be injured, it's nice to not have the pressure you/we put on your/ourselves. You can do your run, feel like you did something, go out hard, sleep on the floor of the running store, wake up, watch friends run while riding a bike, see sluts...

It's truly amazing what we as athletes can do.

KLIM said...

Ha. Thanks Ryan. Better than the post with me pumping water on Ben's face? Actually, let's never speak of that again...

Snizow said...

And then we went to Union Jack's for a costume contest...

KLIM said...

Yes, we did. And we lost...

Andy said...

Tell it to the Marines.