Max's 5K round-up

This race was the 6th race out of 12 in the Playmakers Race Series, and it was the same old thing as far as the winners go. Eric Stuber is a man (a 42 year old man, that is) among boys -- he won his 4th race of the series in 16:16. The womens race was nothing new either, as Regina Vissochi stayed perfect in the series with a winning time of 19:04. It was sunny and in the low 60s, but it seemed to be humid and a lot of the runners seemed like they were laboring more than they should've been. I talked to my buddy BJ after he finished and he said went out wayyyyy too fast -- he rattled off a 4:54 first mile and had the lead, but ended up finishing 3rd in 16:32.

As runners were finishing, I noticed there were a couple of massage tables so I took the opportunity to see if I could get a massage on my calf. Nobody was in line yet so they were more than happy to work on me. I told the guy what was up and he could really tell by massaging my calf that I have tendonitis in my soleus. I told him that I've pretty much been trying every treatment in the book to make it go away, and he told me to focus on ice massages and stretching. I also talked to a few other people after the race who were wondering why the hell I didn't run the race, and they seemed to all come to the same consensus. One of my mom's friends who ran the race introduced me to a lady who looked to be in her 30s who had the same exact problem as me. Basically she said she did the same things I've been doing and she got back into the swing of things slowly by running a couple minutes, walking a couple minutes, and just alternating between the two. Tonight I did some 3-minute loops in my neighborhood and walked in between each of them and did an ice massage when I got back, and everything seemed to respond just fine.

In a sense, I think all I needed was to hear it from people that I know and love running just the same as I do. It just gives me that added sense of comfort that I will come back from this and I will end up training great for the Detroit Marathon. This week is the 1st of 16 weeks leading up to the marathon, and I penciled myself in for a 3 mile run on Tuesday if I'm feeling alright. Right now, I feel I can do it....but Tuesday is not right now, so we'll see how everything responds between now and then.