shin splints, rain, and eggs.

It has been a week for discovery and thought. Not to mention a busy busy weekend.

Tuesday I started to experience some pretty intense pain in the font of my legs.  This is a new thing.. after asking around the general consensus seems to be shin splints. Lovely. The pain seems to get worse when I try to go faster. I plan on taking it easy this week and pushing hard again on Saturday.

Xerlan my wonderful massage friend at Re' showed me how to use cold stones to aid in my recovery so now I am on the prowl for some smooth river rocks. 

I am thinking of getting some Zensa Compression sleeves but I am having difficulty deciding if the investment is worth it. Or if I just plug away the pain will eventually fade on its own. Quitting is clearly not a option.

Thursdays Run was a bit of a struggle for me. My fellow C6 that ran at my pace is now running in the morning to beat the heat. I likely would do the same if I had a shower option near by. As a result not having someone at my side allows me to slack. 3 of the folks who run with Runners World caught me mid slack and called me out. Special thanks to the three guys for doing just that. Trail Zombie pushed me to finish hard ad strong so I could be proud of my run. I did and I was. Seriously guys, Thanks!

Saturdays Run was a quick 4 miles passing many of the Midnight Madness 50 mile Ultra Marathon Runners who were testing their limits in ways I honesty do not think I will ever want to do.



After the training run was over I was off to cook breakfast for the finishers of the 50 mile'er. They had started at 11:59 PM July 2 and it was now 10AM July 3. I had volunteered to cook the pancakes since the concept of a well made casserole still evades me. Pancakes I can handle. Both my Great Grandfathers were well known for the pancake skills they possessed. One of these man could flip a pancake with out the aid of a spatula while cooking in a cast iron skillet. The other was known for serving pancakes at every local community breakfast in the small rural town I grew up in. I am pleased to say I did 'inherit' this trait. Once we got the mixture down the little camp stove was off to the races. Pancakes were being served. We had breakfast casseroles, biscuits and gravy, fruit and yogurt and scrambled eggs.

All was well in our little world. A light mist had begun - everyone thought this would be a relif to the runners until the down pour started. It rained and rained.  It was all we could do to prevent the rain getting all the food soggy, but we plugged on. Runners needed to be fed.

That is until we ran out of eggs. Someone was generous enough to dash to the store for more eggs and it appeared things were back in business.... Until it hit me. Oh crap. These eggs need to be cooked. Crap. We have one camp stove - and I am the cook.

Little known fact about me. I do not eat eggs. They squeak against my teeth when I eat them and I just cannot stand it. This leads to the following statement. Prior to July 3 I have never made a scrambled egg. Ever.

Thank goodness for my husbands addiction to the food network and Diners Drive Ins and Dives. I vaguely remembered a bit from that show with scrambled eggs. Ok, no time to think. No one complained so I guess they were ok.

I am so pleased to have been a part of this race and hope to do so again next year. Who knows I might even pace someone. What a week of lessons it has been!