I can’t really explain this, but having a sports injury leaves me with a sense of accomplishment.  Just ask yourself, when’s the last time you had a sports injury?  Unlike falling off a ladder while changing a lightbulb, this is something I can talk about, unabashedly, at The Well, or at Wibbys, quaffing brews with the guys.  And I have a pretty good story to tell.

I was racing the Boulder High School Boys Cross Country Team up a 2.5 mile, 1000 foot mountain climb in Jamestown.  Those boys were rated 16th in the nation.  And I beat one of them.  I’d have out run two but one of the short little shirtless shits sprinted past me after we crested the hill, with only 10 yards to the finish.  This is good brewpub talk.

The next day, I discovered that I’d strained my hamstrings in both legs.  Further analysis suggested my flat training runs on the LoBo Trail were poor preparation for a hill climb.  And that I’ve been running more on muscle memory than muscle mass.  I’m working on addressing my shortcomings.  That’s what injuries are good for, suggesting future workouts for improvement.

An injury I’ve yet to blog about is my lower back.  I’ve been suffering lower back pain for a month now.  I think I can trace it back to sprinting some strides after a long run.  So yet another sports injury, which makes it okay to talk about.  It’s not like I have a sore back because I’m old or anything like that.  I don’t think this is affecting my running too much. It slows me down at the start, which might be hard to imagine.  I start out so slow already on my runs that I risk toppling over.  But once I warm up, after a mile or two, I’m good.  Hurts again afterward, but that’s what beer and ibuprofen are for.

I should perhaps be writing a few nice things about Mother’s Day.  Karen has been mothering these girls for nearly half her life.

I got in a good eleven miles today in the rain.  I won’t be running Sunday.  Instead, I’ll be cleaning out the basement, this is what Karen wants for Mother’s Day.  She’s not concerned about my lower back pain.  My friends and family in Texas don’t have this problem, you don’t have basements.  You do have scorpions however.  If you’re having trouble picturing a basement, think of a 1000 square foot closet.  A place to put things you don’t want to look at.  Which, if true, doesn’t explain ever needing to clean it out.  But I don’t make the decisions around here.  I just do what I’m told on Mother’s Day.