White Rock & Roll

I know, it's been a near eternity since making a post, but there has just been too #(%* much going on this #(%* holiday season to find the time to sit down & write. To be included in this year's festivities was my weekend excursion to Dallas for the White Rock Half-Marathon. Dreading the traffic in Austin, and not wanting to take the 281 bypass, I arranged for a sub for half the day and made my escape at one o'clock. With the cruise control set somewhere in the 90s, I was on the tollway in Dallas by six; Austin added a near-negligible fifteen minutes to the commute. My sister no longer lives in Big D, so I arranged to stay with my friend, D---, and his wife, K---. Come to think of it, even when Miss Muffet was in Dallas, I preferred to stay with D--- & K---. Their accommodations are more inviting and they don't always have the TV on. That they ride, too (D--- is an IM finisher, too; Coeur d'Alene, 2005), which is just bonus. Saturday was jam-packed with making up this week's midterm for class (habit forced my eyes open at 5:30, and it was too cold to run, to say nothing of the fact that I don't know their neighborhood too well), hitting the expo for packet pickup (Active.com registered me twice -- and charged me twice, too!), then a spin around the lake by bike before swimming (outside) and dinner. Saturday night was mercifully uneventful; D--- & K--- went to a party whilst I chilled at their casa, reading my new book, The Devil's Teeth. More on the book another time. It's time to run. Sunday morning was chilly, but not as cold as the initial forecast called for; 40°. Dressing for the whole event, I made my way to the AA Center (um, that's American Airlines, not the other AA) for the 8:00 AM start. By then, the sun was up...and so was the temperature. By mile 6, I was sweating a good deal, but lucked out by spotting (rather, being spotted by) D--- & K--- on the sidelines. I shed my hat & vest and moved on, making (what I felt was) decent time. I crossed the finish with a time of 1:44:31, 29 seconds less than my goal of 1:45:00, which is good. What wasn't good was the fact that my S625X reported a distance of 14.1 miles, one mile over the stated 13.1 miles. D--- is supposed to check on the distance for me. The other non-good thing was that my left knee was again bothering me. It hurt like hell the rest of Sunday & all day Monday, but was much better by Tuesday. I've an appointment with the doctor tomorrow (Thursday) to try & find out what's going on, but, like my buddy, B--- -- who is also training for an IM (got his eye on Kona), it might just be a case of tendonitis, best cured by improved form. Good thing D--- in Dallas is a running coach. Maybe I can bug him for some tips...a payback for the biking advice I gave him last year (for all the good that it did; he was already a good rider when we met, but we did train a fair amount together, in spite of the distance between SA-town & Big D). Right, then. I think I've rambled enough. Time to grab some dinner and ready tomorrow's lessons. Two more days until the holidays, and then it's time to get serious about training. Hope the weather holds out. Thanks for reading.//d