Twelve Miler with the Fall Team

All week, I really wanted to go out with TNT this weekend. I am not on the team but I am a patient honoree, and enjoy going out on some of the training runs and walks. I am not in marathon shape, having not run since the Komen Breast Cancer 5K in early May, and having walked no more than 6 or 7 miles or so at a time since the Arizona Marathon in January. That is not counting a few longer hikes, of course.

So on Monday and Tuesday, I walked 9 miles, fast, to help prepare and in the process gave myself a decent blister on the ball of each foot. Just to be sure it wouldn’t be easy, on Wednesday I woke up with a backache and could walk only at a pace that an 85 year old would have sneered at. A week before I was bounding, well at least slogging, up mountains in New Hampshire, and on Wednesday a hill in Florida, assuming there is such a thing, would have challenged me. Fortunately, the good Doctor Mark at Guarino Chiropractic gave me an alignment on Wednesday and again last evening. Those combined with frequent icing got me prepared to go to training and got me through it just fine. I am a firm believer in chiropractics and can give you several examples of how it turned extreme pain and near disaster into the ability to move well.

This morning, I got up at 4:45AM – so tough on a Saturday – put moleskin over each blister and headed to Byrd Park to meet the team. They are training for the Virginia Beach Half Marathon in two weeks, and the Nike and Marine Corps marathons in October. It was great to see them again. Coaches Tim, Chuck, and Betty led us in warm-ups and a Team Cheer: “Train – Endure – Achieve – Matter”. Then at about 6:15, we headed out to do 12 miles. Our route was through Richmond’s “Fan District”, crisscrossing back and forth through this interesting area for nearly half a marathon. It was a lot of fun, and I am happy to report that I am not too sore, having taken a wonderful ice water soak when I got home. I guess I am still in at least semi-decent shape after all. My back feels pretty good (Thanks again, Dr. Mark!), and the moleskin helped keep the blisters from getting worse.

Here are some photos from my morning with the Purple People!

Nothing like an early start on a Saturday! What were you doing today at O-Dark Hundred?


In 16 years in Richmond, I’d never seen this statue before, and am not sure I could find it again. But is was pretty cool!


One of the many interesting residential streets in the “Fan”:


Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart guards Monument Avenue:


“Rachel Weeping for her Children”. Holocaust memorial outside the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart. It is difficult not to weep when thinking of the horror of this event, and man’s unspeakable inhumanity at so many times. But the memorial is simple, moving, and beautiful: