Blasphemy Will Get You Nowhere

With the Atwood Duo Medal-y looming, I decided I might need more than just a day off, but I wanted to see what sort of mess I'm getting myself into the way temperatures have been.  So we signed up for the St. Pius Run on Wednesday instead of running Thursday and ran in the 95 degree temperatures.  It was just burning up out there to the point where we stayed in the shade and waited for race time. 

We watched the kids run and saw one wipe out and start bawling.  His mom picked him up and carried him off as a girl over by us said she'd wrap her kid up in knee and elbow pads if they ran one of those.  Jason and I pretty much talked about how if that were our parents we'd probably be told that we were fine and to get up and finish the race.  He didn't even skin his knee.  Oh well, I'll stop there before this becomes some sort of social commentary.

I made the mistake of wearing a very dark green shirt with a very large printed logo on the front (Green Lantern) that didn't breathe at all.  Probably should have went for something a little heat friendly, but it looked good, and I got a "nice shirt" from another runner, so...worth it.  I had to snag a water at mile 2 and it was a little out of the way on the course.  That's where Jason lost me, and I stayed about that far away the rest of the race.  I couldn't get anything going.  My legs were dead.  Even my attempts at a last drive sprint to the finish were squashed by unresponsive muscles, and there was no catching Jason.  So the good back-and-forth continues.

I still don't have an official time for the race (it was 27:15ish).  The results got messed up and they couldn't even give out awards that day because of it.  They said they'd post results later that night and mail out the medals, but I haven't seen anything, so I'm starting to believe that they're lost for good. 

When I got home, I was about to post a joke about St. Pius being the patron saint of running in REALLY hot weather on the Facebook, when I immediately got a really bad calf pull.  It was a really painful one too.  Painful enough for me to beg "No, no, I'm just kidding.  I won't post it.  Make it stop!"  So it stopped, but it's still pretty painful.  I could barely walk on it that night, and I still feel like someone stabbed me in the calf.  I really hope it's better by tomorrow.  I think it should be at least good enough to run.  I may give it a little 2 miler today to test it.  The original wording of my St. Pius comment will never see the light of day, and I feel a tightening in my calf just thinking it now.  So I will let it be. 

If I get a chance to let you know how Atwood went Saturday, I will.  I know I have a busy day, though.  Among other things, there's a BBQ cook-off at the Farmer's Market after the race with my name on it, and I think Jessi wanted to do something that night too (I think she wanted to force me to take her to baseball?...I cant' remember).