Judging by my emails, a number of people were understandably under the impression that I was running the 10k this weekend.
It didn’t happen. It was supposed to be a family affair, but my dad got sidelined by a back injury in the fall. I’m not sure what happened to Alex’s plans to run. Mike was going to start training on February 1st if it looked like everybody else was serious about it. I fell by the wayside in April because my left leg developed a profound aching from hip to ankle whenever I ran more than five or ten minutes.
I’m still running, just not often enough to make any progress or to take race training seriously. I’m doing about 3k once a week, and I’m alternating running and walking for the last kilometer. I’m going to make an appointment at the Chinese Ditda to see if they can put the zoom back in Zoom. Wish me luck.
I did show up for the 10k though, and watched as thousands of other people ran it or walked it. Here are a few pictures:
This is the cloud of elite women runners. They run in a pack for a good chunk of the race, and then I think they jockey for position, make their move and sprint to the finish line.
This is the cloud of elite men runners. Ditto.
This is the crowd of 8,418 ordinary people of all different ages and sizes who poured down the Driveway for the next hour and a half. 
That was last night. Today I watched the Marathon from start to finish and I’m so exhausted I can barely blog. I’ll post the pix later. Congratulations to everybody who participated in National Capital Race Weekend over the last few days – you were all pretty spectacular.
TAGS:
Hey Zoom,
Sounds to me like you have IT band syndrome. I suffer from this and I would suggest you go see a sports medicine dr and get a script for some physical therapy. Im currently dealing with a partially torn sartorious muscle which is almost healed. I tore the dang thing because my quads are more developed than my hamstrings and they both are more developed than the muscles that run along the outsides of my hips which cause my hip to pop out of joint. Yay physical therapy for me. Hope your hip gets better soon so you can keep up the running.
Megan
Zoom, Megan,
Perhaps you should consider aerobic exercise that less often leads to parts of your body tearing or popping out of their sockets.
Just sayin’.
I agree with Mr. Scrimshaw. I ran for many, many years and never managed to pop or tear anything, but as I got older I began to feel that running was no longer the best exercize for me. If your body is not responding well to a particular form of exercize it’s best to move on.
I don’t think it’s IT Band Syndrome because I don’t feel any pain – just heavy-duty aching.
David, I see your mission continues to save the runners.
XUP, I’ve never popped or torn anything either, but I haven’t decided yet whether my running days are behind me. I think I’ll keep running throughout the summer and fall and then decide….it seems a shame to have made it through winter only to give it up.