Touch down

When I wait til Wednesday to write a post, I forget a bunch of my ideas. But last week was a busy week if nothing else.

My running has been on hiatus for the time being. The butt feels better but the hamstring is still acting up a little....not as bad as it was when it first acted up, but it's still there. I probably mentioned this before but we have a free injury clinic each Wednesday night at Playmakers where physical therapists and sports med doctors from the area spend a couple hours in the store and help people out with their running ailments. One lady who is there each week as well is a massage therapist, and I've been talking to her about my hamstring and getting it worked on. She's the one who told me about the protein I should be having in my diet. Anyway last week she gave me some good exercises and stretches to do, and I have been doing them. Today it was feeling ok, so I ran 4 miles after work and them came back for the clinic to talk to her. Everything felt good during the run, but now it's sore. Basically she said I can run and heal at the same time, which is what she said last week, as long as I stay on top of the healing process. The only thing is I can't do speedwork or run fast, which I wasn't planning on doing anyway until I'm pain free. Sooooo we'll see if anything improves in the next few days. I'm so sick of being injured but I'm sure everybody knows that by now.

Last Thursday, we were definitely fighting with Mother Nature. We hardly ever get bad storms around here, but that night was something to remember. Between 6pm and 1am, we were under FOUR separate tornado warnings....we're usually lucky (or unlucky?) to get 4 warnings over a span of 3 years. Most of the storms had funnel clouds but nothing touched the ground, however one actually did touch down about 15 minutes east of here in the relatively small town of Williamston. A couple homes were destroyed and many were damaged, as is often seen in a tornado, but it's weird because it's so rare to see that around here. At the end of the post I added in a youtube video of a local newscast interviewing a guy named Vance, whose house got destroyed. Vance lost his eyesight 6 years ago after an accident with a drunk driver. He's a part of the Playmakers family (as you'll see with the shirt he's wearing) and he often comes in the store to say hi and even help out as much as he can during the big sidewalk sale we have twice a year. He also runs many local races with the help of someone who can see being tethered to him. He's one of the nicest guys I've ever met and has always been positive with everything that has happened to him...my best wishes go out to him in hopes they can quickly rebuild his home.

Saturday was the MSU/Ohio State game and it was pretty much a one-sided affair. The final score was 24-17 but it wasn't nearly as close as the score says. OSU was up 24-0 when one of MSU's defensive backs returned an interception for a touchdown. Then three plays after that, MSU forced a fumble and returned that for a touchdown too. That made it 24-14 in the 4th quarter, but MSU's offense did nothing all day against a stellar Buckeye defense. It just wasn't meant to be that day. At any rate, MSU is 5-3, losers of 3 out of the last 4, and still one win away from being bowl eligible with four games left against Iowa, Michigan, Purdue, and Penn State. How they finish the season is anybody's guess...

Sunday was the Detroit Marathon! I knew some people running it....Scott in 3:19, Krista in 3:50, and then in the half marathon it was Shannon in 1:31 and Jake in 1:16, both winning their respective age groups. Also, BJ's relay team won with the lowest overall time, so congrats to all. Overall it seemed like a nice day for a marathon....sunny and windy but a bit warm with temps in the 60's.

I suppose that's it for this week...we'll see what this next one holds.

"We'll take this and build on this - the fact that we stayed together, didn't split apart, didn't blame people, didn't cash it in, didn't go in the tank and let it become a 41-0 game." --MSU head coach Mark Dantonio

"We've got four games left. And I feel we can win all four of those." --MSU quarterback Brian Hoyer

"I didn't hit the wall. At mile 16 I had to pee SO bad. I've never peed so much in my entire life!" -Scott, on why his second half was slower than his first half.