As I said earlier this week, I really hadn’t planned on tapering before the Broad Street Run on Sunday (visit my DC Running Examiner site for my race preview). But with orders not to run for a few days until a cortisone shot in my ankle has a chance to work, I entered into a [...]
Entries from April 2009
April 29, 2009
Wanted: motivation to swim
Has anyone seen my motivation to swim? I had it just a few weeks ago. I must have put it down, or dropped it on the way to the pool one day, because for the past week or so, I’ve wanted to swim about as much as I’ve wanted to step on a rusty nail. [...]
April 28, 2009
Cortisone shots a fix for my swollen ankle?
I’m trying not to stare at my ankle. This morning, my doctor gave me a cortisone shot to try to quell the swelling and pain that’s been nagging my ankle since I twisted running it in Rock Creek Park back in December. He told me it would take two weeks to work. Still, I keep [...]
April 27, 2009
Looking ahead to the Broad Street Ten Miler
After melting in near-90-degree heat at the GW Parkway Ten Miler this weekend, where I ran a disappointing 1:26:10, I couldn’t help but start obsessing about the forecast for this Sunday, when I’m running the Broad Street Ten Miler with Jen, my best friend and training buddy. I’m happy to share the good news from [...]
April 27, 2009
Back to the running doc
My race calendar has been full for the past couple weeks, with the Silver Spring Earth Day 5K the weekend before last, the GW Parkway Classic Ten Miler on Sunday and the Broad Street Ten Miler in Philadelphia this coming weekend. Amid the excitement, I’ve all but forgotten about taking care of my still-swollen ankle, [...]
April 26, 2009
GW Parkway Classic Ten Miler post-mortem
As I said in my DC Running Examiner race review, the George Washington Parkway Classic Ten Miler wasn’t the all-downhill joyride I was hoping for. It’s a point-to-point course along the Potomac River that includes lots of gentle, rolling hills. While it included more downhills than uphills, it didn’t strike me as a particularly fast [...]
April 24, 2009
Mixing it up
We, as runners and as humans, are routine-driven creatures. When it comes down to it, most of us benefit from a regular schedule, and a regular lineup of habits that help us get through the day. I’m that way with training, and I benefit greatly from Tuesday and Thursday runs with Pacers, and Monday and [...]
April 22, 2009
Bethesda resident beats odds, streaks at Boston
Not that kind of streaking, silly. According to a piece from Runner’s World Amby Burfoot, Ben Beach of Bethesda has run 42 consecutive Boston Marathons. Actually, the Runner’s World piece from March 2008 says he’s completed 40 — Monday marked his twenty-second, with a finish of 4:48, according to race results. In addition to being consistent, Beach is fast, with [...]
April 21, 2009
Ethiopian girls get a lift from DC-based Girls Gotta Run
Washington resident and former women’s studies professor Patricia Ortman was reading The Washington Post in her rocking chair one morning in December 2005 when her life changed course. She read a story, “Facing Servitude, Ethiopian Girls Run for a Better Life,” that detailed the plight of young women in Ethiopia, many who find that running provides [...]
April 20, 2009
Boston connection:Girls Gotta Run
I was thrilled to learn that my marathon time of 4:34 in 2007 qualified me to run the coveted Boston Marathon. That is, it would have qualified me on the age-graded qualifying scale if I were a 75-year-old woman. In the meantime, I live vicariously through other Washington-area locals running the mother of all marathons, which [...]
