September 16th, 2007 - Happy 50th Birthday to me!

Hi All,

Month of August: 39.1 miles
Month of September (so far): 17.5 miles

It's been a long time between blog posts ... real life and injuries have gotten in the way. I am finally on the mend from a right calf pull, then a left knee ache. I ran the Palmyra Canaltown Days 5K in a PR of 22:30, a 7:15 mile pace, finishing 12th and good for 2nd place in my new 50-59 age group. I wanted to just run for fun ... after all, I hadn't run a race in 4 months but the competitive juices just flowed ... plus I was pacing someone for the first mile and a half. She left me in her dust when we started to go up a hill. I ran a 6:41 first mile and ran pain free.

What has happened to me running-wise over the past two months? Well, I did not run the Boilermaker 15K. I could not have run the race more than a couple of miles before I would have had to walk the rest of the way. My right calf slowly healed. Then when I started to run again my left knee hurt. But that has slowly gone away. I am happy to just run for fun now. I don't know if I will be able to run the longer distances. I think that always pushing for PRs, or pushing my mileage up too fast got me injured. I wanted to run the Rochester full or half marathon this morning but didn't want to injure myself again.

What has happened to me personally over the past two months? Well, I have come to the realization that I will have to fix up and sell my house so I can move up to Rochester. It is just too expensive to live way out in Newark and commute to Rochester. I grew up in Newark but what can you do?

Personally, life is frustrating. I am still not divorced. My wife ran out of retainer money with her lawyer and we have nothing to show for it. No settlement, no nothing ... we have been living separately for two years now. It is frustrating being lonely and wanting to have a relationship but not being able. So JK is a friend now ... not a girlfriend. I don't know what I was to her back in June and early July. I thought she was a girlfriend ... whatever that means nowadays. I guess I reached for something I couldn't have right now. I don't know much about the dating world of today. I asked her to let me know if I was screwing up ... well, she didn't. I thought I had found someone special ... for a while I was the happiest I had been in years. I had found happiness, motivation ... all that good stuff. Now I am just getting over the heartache and getting back the motivation that I will need to fix up my house. JK says she will help me fix up my house. I could use her input ... she knows quite a bit about this sort of stuff.

Well, it is my birthday but I need to get busy with my house. I have one upstairs bedroom painted and I have a lot more to do. I started out wanting to do one room a weekend. If I want to do that I will have to work every night after work. My first room took two weekends. Even though my house is just a small three bedroom cape ... it's a big house when you are all by yourself working on it.

I will continue to work in some running. Twice a week during lunch up at work and once during the weekend. I need the joy that running gives me.

Keep running, Doug