Pending Injury

     Injury: since owning Black Mountain Running Co, i've had hundreds of runners come in with their injury stories. Every single time I hear them, I can't help but thinking "my time is coming". You see, since I started running in fall of 2008 i've logged more than 5,000 miles without a running injury. You could easily see, my time was coming.
     As EVERYBODY knows by this point, while I was trudging through Alaska in The Iditarod Trail Invitational, I was in rough shape. My feet were badly blistered and I put pressure on a different part of my foot than I usually do. I strained my ankle very badly and couldn't run for 1 and 1/2 months after the event. After taking a break, I thought the ankle was healed. I was wrong.
                                                                     

  
     It's now been 3 and 1/2 months since The ITI and my ankle is STILL swollen. Now, it hurts like a BITCH too. I can run flats and uphills with no problem but running downhills puts pressure on the ankle. Seeing as though I LOVE to run in the mountains, this is a problem.
     The Tahoe 200 is looming large. I want to be in the best shape of my life by the time I toe the line on September 5th. This past Monday night, my friend Charles (From Steep Canyon Rangers Fame) and I

ran what is to be the first of many ultra running night missions. Inspired by Adam Hill and others, we decided to run from Mt. Pisgah to The Folk Art Center starting at 11:20 PM on Monday night. The first part of the trail was The Shut In Trail and it tore me up.  I was actually limping slightly and the
ibuprofen just wasn't doing it's trick. Charles was running hard and I simply couldn't keep up. Rather than hurt myself further, I decided to tell Charles that my ankle was hurting. We slowed down a bit and my ankle got better when we got done with the first 20 miles of the run. We finished at 7:20 AM at the Folk Art Center and were thrilled. Mt. Pisgah to The Folk Art Center is 35 miles long and 1/2 of the famous (or infamous) nearly 70 mile Pitchell race put on by Adam Hill each Fall. I'm looking forward to finishing that race this year as I stopped short of the Mt. Mitchell summit last year and I certainly don't like starting things and not FINISHING them. I left a little meat on the Pitchell Bone!
     As for the ankle, i'm going to see a doctor tomorrow. I hope for the best but fear the worst. The silver lining is that if I am forced to take some time off running, I can start riding my new Borealis Fat Bike that I have been dying to break in. Borealis was cool enough to get me a great deal on one of the bikes used on The ITI by bikers. They said if I was crazy enough to finish The ITI on foot, than they wanted me on one of their bikes. I couldn't say no. So, if you see me on my bike in the next month or so, you will know why! Regardless of injuries; Carpe Diem. Yee Haw!