Even though I’m still a little nervous about my upcoming doctor’s visit to further diagnose my hip injury, I’m in a very good mood today. This morning I ran the Shamrock Shuffle 8K race in Chicago with some friends and set a new Personal Record (PR) for that distance.

I ran the race (FYI 8K is just shy of 5 miles) in 40:11 which works out to around an 8:03 pace. My first mile was 8:50 or so and each subsequent mile was faster than the one before. When I realized I just might have a chance to break 40 minutes I turned on the jets for the last mile and cranked out a 7:10 mile.


Besides running a solid race, the best news of the day was that I was running at all. It had been five days since my last run which seemed like a lifetime ago. I had forgotten how much fun a road race can be versus a normal training run since my last road race was the Run Hit Wonder several months ago.

As far as the leg and “quasi injury” (that’s what I’m now calling it in hopes it will just go away) I feel pretty good right now (6 hours after the race was over). I actually felt better during and after the race than before I started. While this can be viewed as good news it’s exactly the same thing that happened during and after Tuesday’s 7 mile run – felt great during, felt better after, limped throughout the next day. I’m trying to prepare myself for feeling bad tomorrow but we will have to wait and see. I would rather run 15 miles outside in good weather than spend an hour on the dreaded elliptical.

As far as treatment of the injury I’ve been doing cycles of 20 minutes ice, 20 off, 20 ice etc. I also got a pack of ‘icy hot’ patches so I now smell like a nursing home – I guess the patches are endorsed by Shaq so I should feel like a 7’1” human wrecking ball.

Two things I almost forgot to mention ... the postrace food wasn't so hot but the free beer was excellent. Also I hear the marathon guru himself - Hal Higdon - was spoted in the 'competitive start' zone of the race.

To get into the 'Preferred Start' zone this year you had to run a sub 42:30 in last year's race. Hopefully this means I'll have preferred start in the '07 Shuffle and get to wear the uber-cool green bib.

Tomorrow is a rest day but I will try and get to the gym for core work and stretching. Tuesday I see the doc so I’ll probably be making another entry then.