Well I'm officially back! It took six weeks but I'm back in training again! I've been running for 2 weeks now. I'm having physical therapy two times per week as well. I did a long run on Saturday with the Savannah Striders of 6 miles in 62 minutes! OK, not very fast but I did it. I did walk a few times. I made the mistake of running on a full stomach! My stomach hurt off and on all day. It was a hard work out and I wasn't feeling good but I'm glad I put the effort in because what if it was a racing day? What if I feel bad and have to race? These long run days are a great practice for the real thing. The humidity and heat are pretty bad (Temps are well into the 80's by 8am, Humidity is over 70%!) I did 1 hour of Jivamukti Yoga this morning (Sunday). I needed the rest but Yoga is still a lot of effort, albeit "gentle" effort. (I hope David and Shannon won't be offended-Jivamukti is not "gentle" but it is low impact!)

Karen and I walked the first half of the marathon! I took several pictures. The course has a lot of asphalt. Some concrete and a few hills made up of mostly overpasses but there are some low, grade hills. A couple of train tracks to watch your footing at. We walked about 14.2 miles in total. Karen kept commenting that we were going the long way around and how inefficient the course was. She thought she could cut the first 13 miles to about 5 miles. I had to reminder her that it needs to be a total of 26.2 miles or it isn't a marathon....Her hips were quite stiff for about 2 days.

Stretching is really important in preparing to run a marathon. I used to stretch maybe 5 minutes before running. Since my injury I've worked up to about 30 minutes or more of stretching before a run. I try to warm up with 5 minutes of jogging in place before stretching but I don't do that every time.

Nothing like an injury to show you how marvelous the human body is! How delicate a balance we have in our bodies and how even one little thing can knock that balance out. But I'm awed at how with a few simple things you can bring a body back into balance.

I used to think that if something in my life happened to "lose my balance" that I would tailspin and crash, give up, quit or worse- Dig in and stubbornly keep maintaining the actions or attitudes that cause the imbalance in the first place.

I'm learning that the world won't end if something goes wrong. That the situation is a speed bump in life not a dead end, certainly not the destination - the end of that particular journey. If I need help, then I need help. Working with Theron, the Savannah Striders, and Coastal Therapy I am able to get help. Not necessarily about running so much as living.

It's funny how a little change can bring a life of a person back into balance.

Tomorrow is a Speed Day!! See you at the track!!