WOW....
....Yes it's definitely been a while since I've really left any post regarding what has been happening, especially with my running. The last time I've left a post up here aside from the Mother's Day one, I was not even twenty-five yet. Well, as of Friday, April 25, 2008, I celebrated my twenty-fifth birthday! It was pretty fun. At the end of work at the Homewood Center, we usually have these team meetings, and when I arrived at the meeting they had cake and other desserts out for me and this other gentleman who turned fifty that day! It was an awesome surprise; not too many people I work with knew it was my birthday, and the ones who did, I did not tell them about it until the day of. I'm usually not one to call attention to myself (well at least as far as birthdays are concerned), so I was thoroughly pleased with it. It was funny, because as I was celebrating my twenty-fifth birthday, and the other gentleman was celebrating his fiftieth birthday, people were putting a quarter by my name on a card that my co-workers got us, and a half-dollar coin by his name, to symbolize that I was a quarter-of-a-century old and he was half-a-century old. People also said that I was "half" the man he was, 'cause I'm about half his age, haha! It was a pretty neat celebration and time to kick back with some co-workers. After work I stopped by my parents' place and visited with them. Later that evening I met up with some friends at the Macaroni Grill in Annapolis (Anne Arundel County,) and then played a couple of games of bowling with my brother and some of my friends at Annapolis Bowl. We had a fun time! I stayed up quite late too; but again, we had some fun.
The next morning (Saturday, 4/26/08) I woke up early to help out at a race, NOT TO RUN IN ONE. I was originally thinking of running in the Bryant Woods Montessori Backyard Dash 5K in Columbia (Howard County), Maryland. However, due to the previous Sunday's (4/20/08's) run at Clyde's 10K in Columbia, I remained firm in my conviction to take some time off and seek out getting some physical therapy/treatments with my foot, 'cause it really seems like I have plantar fascitis (paint along the bottom and sides of my foot). So, I decided to go over there and volunteer. Another reason I came was because the race actually started and finished at Wilde Lake High School. I had been a long-term substitute student assistant with the Academic Life Skills (A.L.S.) Department at Wilde Lake for a couple of months last spring and it was a year ago that day (Thursday, 4/26/07) that I had started my substitute job at "the Lake." I figured that since I was going to go to my parents' place anyway to mow the lawn, I might as well stop by the event and see how it turns out/help out. As you can tell, I consider watching races a fun spectator sport. The staff at the Bryant Woods Montessori School (http://www.bryantwoodsmontessori.com/index.html) and some people from the Howard County Striders (http://www.striders.net) quickly recruited me to work at the finish line and sorta keep the runners who just finished in order until they tore off the bottom of their tags. It was nice, 'cause I got to see the finish of the race, and I was glad to see that a runner pushing a stroller with two infants in it won the race!! Wow, praise God! I had never seen anyone pushing a stroller win a race before, especially one as hilly as this one was. Also, this was the first running of this race, so I guess he currently as the record for it as well as the young'ins in the stroller :) It kind of reminds me of hearing about how Michael Wardian set a record for the fastest marathon run while pushing a stroller in the 2007 Frederick Marathon in Frederick County, MD (according to the results, Wardian finished third overall in 2:42:21). I thought that was quite impressive as well and seeing someone pushing a stroller win a rather hilly race was remarkable.
Once the 5K was over, they had children's races at the Wilde Lake High School Track (which reminded me of the "A Day at the Races" 5K I ran in Centreville (Queen Anne's County), MD at Queen Anne's County High School, where they had a distance that was close to a 5K on the school's cross country course with some track races for younger runners). After helping out at the finish line, I hung out at the race for a while and met a young lady named Corrie, who likes to run and she ran her best 5K time-to-date (which I thought was swell, because it was such a challenging course). We ended up having a terrific convo about God, running, and some of the people and friends we both happened to know. It was an excellent morning! Soon afterwards, I went off to the gym at Howard Community College to do some lifting and then I eventually headed to my parents' house to mow the lawn and do some homework.
Later that night when I got back to my place, my roomies and some of my friends had a get-together at the townhouse in celebration of my birthday the previous day! We hung out, had a few drinks, and played some board games while the T.V. was on (I think it was the fourth "Harry Potter" movie called "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" and then some "Saturday Night Live" afterwards). It was a pretty fun weekend, and Sunday I spent a good portion of it doing homework and at church!
A coupla days later (Tuesday, 4-29-08) I had my first doctor's appointment with Dr. Steacy, a doctor/physical therapist that one of my buddies from the Howard County Striders recommend that I see. He works over at the Sports and Spine Rehab organization. I am really glad that I made it a point to see him, because within about a good five-to-ten minutes of listening to me talk about my foot problems and him examining my foot, he made a diagnosis that made a lot of sense and seemed very relevant to what I felt was going on in my foot. Basically, I was prescribed some orthodics to help correct my issue with the pronation (how my foot hits the ground) and how that has been causing some pains and injuries in my right leg (probably for several years now). Hopefully these orthodics will do the trick. He pretty much said to not run and if I do, go easy and not too much. I had plans to run an 8K race with my friend Joe that weekend in Crisfield (Somserset County), MD, and he said it was fine so long as I take it easy and take some time off afterwards. I easily agreed, because at that point I was pleasantly surprised that he would even let me run that far and the way I was feeling, especially after not having run in over a week, I thought it would be a good idea to do that race nice and easily for fun.
I'll update you on how that race went on the next post; but I can tell you I was pleasantly surprised with some things about it. Right now, I am hoping for a nice recovery with my foot (which has not been bothering me all that much since I started with the time off and the physical therapy). I have a lot of faith that God will bring me through this and help me continue to run, and it looks like He has been doing that these past few weeks :) More on that later; I hope you all have a wonderful day and weekend out there!
The next morning (Saturday, 4/26/08) I woke up early to help out at a race, NOT TO RUN IN ONE. I was originally thinking of running in the Bryant Woods Montessori Backyard Dash 5K in Columbia (Howard County), Maryland. However, due to the previous Sunday's (4/20/08's) run at Clyde's 10K in Columbia, I remained firm in my conviction to take some time off and seek out getting some physical therapy/treatments with my foot, 'cause it really seems like I have plantar fascitis (paint along the bottom and sides of my foot). So, I decided to go over there and volunteer. Another reason I came was because the race actually started and finished at Wilde Lake High School. I had been a long-term substitute student assistant with the Academic Life Skills (A.L.S.) Department at Wilde Lake for a couple of months last spring and it was a year ago that day (Thursday, 4/26/07) that I had started my substitute job at "the Lake." I figured that since I was going to go to my parents' place anyway to mow the lawn, I might as well stop by the event and see how it turns out/help out. As you can tell, I consider watching races a fun spectator sport. The staff at the Bryant Woods Montessori School (http://www.bryantwoodsmontessori.com/index.html) and some people from the Howard County Striders (http://www.striders.net) quickly recruited me to work at the finish line and sorta keep the runners who just finished in order until they tore off the bottom of their tags. It was nice, 'cause I got to see the finish of the race, and I was glad to see that a runner pushing a stroller with two infants in it won the race!! Wow, praise God! I had never seen anyone pushing a stroller win a race before, especially one as hilly as this one was. Also, this was the first running of this race, so I guess he currently as the record for it as well as the young'ins in the stroller :) It kind of reminds me of hearing about how Michael Wardian set a record for the fastest marathon run while pushing a stroller in the 2007 Frederick Marathon in Frederick County, MD (according to the results, Wardian finished third overall in 2:42:21). I thought that was quite impressive as well and seeing someone pushing a stroller win a rather hilly race was remarkable.
Once the 5K was over, they had children's races at the Wilde Lake High School Track (which reminded me of the "A Day at the Races" 5K I ran in Centreville (Queen Anne's County), MD at Queen Anne's County High School, where they had a distance that was close to a 5K on the school's cross country course with some track races for younger runners). After helping out at the finish line, I hung out at the race for a while and met a young lady named Corrie, who likes to run and she ran her best 5K time-to-date (which I thought was swell, because it was such a challenging course). We ended up having a terrific convo about God, running, and some of the people and friends we both happened to know. It was an excellent morning! Soon afterwards, I went off to the gym at Howard Community College to do some lifting and then I eventually headed to my parents' house to mow the lawn and do some homework.
Later that night when I got back to my place, my roomies and some of my friends had a get-together at the townhouse in celebration of my birthday the previous day! We hung out, had a few drinks, and played some board games while the T.V. was on (I think it was the fourth "Harry Potter" movie called "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" and then some "Saturday Night Live" afterwards). It was a pretty fun weekend, and Sunday I spent a good portion of it doing homework and at church!
A coupla days later (Tuesday, 4-29-08) I had my first doctor's appointment with Dr. Steacy, a doctor/physical therapist that one of my buddies from the Howard County Striders recommend that I see. He works over at the Sports and Spine Rehab organization. I am really glad that I made it a point to see him, because within about a good five-to-ten minutes of listening to me talk about my foot problems and him examining my foot, he made a diagnosis that made a lot of sense and seemed very relevant to what I felt was going on in my foot. Basically, I was prescribed some orthodics to help correct my issue with the pronation (how my foot hits the ground) and how that has been causing some pains and injuries in my right leg (probably for several years now). Hopefully these orthodics will do the trick. He pretty much said to not run and if I do, go easy and not too much. I had plans to run an 8K race with my friend Joe that weekend in Crisfield (Somserset County), MD, and he said it was fine so long as I take it easy and take some time off afterwards. I easily agreed, because at that point I was pleasantly surprised that he would even let me run that far and the way I was feeling, especially after not having run in over a week, I thought it would be a good idea to do that race nice and easily for fun.
I'll update you on how that race went on the next post; but I can tell you I was pleasantly surprised with some things about it. Right now, I am hoping for a nice recovery with my foot (which has not been bothering me all that much since I started with the time off and the physical therapy). I have a lot of faith that God will bring me through this and help me continue to run, and it looks like He has been doing that these past few weeks :) More on that later; I hope you all have a wonderful day and weekend out there!
1 comment:
Well we're fellow Taurus' then! Happy birthday! :)
Hope your leg feels better soon, and I gotta tell you, speaking as a person who can run even 2K without stopping, I could'nt appreciate more what you do!
Din :)
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