No more pain

It's been one month since the marathon. I think 2 days ago my left shin finally stopped hurting. "Hurt" may be too strong a word, but there was definitely some uncomfortable tension there for the past four weeks. My right shin stopped hurting about a week earlier. I wrapped up my lower right leg on race day and that leg healed sooner. Hmmmmm... whatdayaknow, that stuff really works.

So let's see: marathon training involves about 2 months of pain before the race, and 1 month of pain after. That's 1/4 of the year. Why do people do this?

Worst. Photos. Evar.

I've been trying to work on my posing on my runs so that I can get some nice photos during my races. Well it seems that the L.A. Marathon people conspired against me. Here's one of the shots they took:



Nice action shot, huh? No, this isn't at the starting line. It's in the middle of the race. Me just standing still in the middle of run trying to stretch out my back while people run past me. Gee thanks a lot.

They had a team of photographers on a bridge over the finish line constantly taking pictures to essentially guarantee our accomplishments would be documented. Although I don't really have fond memories of the L.A. Marathon, it would be nice to have that snapshot of me crossing the finish line. Here's the best they had:



That's me on the left. Cast off to the side as a footnote to the event. I don't see why they even bother putting the clock in photos after the first 1000 finishers: the Clock Time is completely off. I would hate to have a picture like this on my desk and have to explain every time "I was several minutes behind clock time, and I really did finish in under 5 hours. I swear!"

To be fair, the photos aren't all awful. My face is in shadow from the hat, but that's better than exposing my bald spots. At least I'm in frame and actually moving forward here:

Rain Dance

I'm hoping nobody from my tri team sees this before tomorrow...

I have not done any running since the marathon 2 1/2 weeks ago. There is a relay marathon coming up in a few weeks (5-person teams, everyone runs 5 miles) and I'm supposed to meet with some people after work to start practicing. I don't want to go. My shins are still hurting, and I'm just tird. Physically and mentally. It was raining this morning and I was very happy because the forecast called for showers all day long: the perfect excuse to cancel. But no, the stupid sun had to come out and now it's beautiful outside.

If you know of any tricks to whip up a quick thunderstorm, now's the time.