Regarding My Current Plan...and Oh Yeah, Some Little Race in New England

I saw my doctor again last Friday. He was kind enough not to comment on my recent weight gain (okay, it's not THAT bad...plus my wife likes me not being rail-thin). He was also kind enough to encourage me to continue with my walk/run program. I'll be doing three of them per week, sticking with ten minutes for each session for another week or two (alternating 1 or 2 minutes of running with 1 minute of walking). After 2-3 weeks at each time level, I can add 5 minutes per session, as long as my heel doesn't protest. He cautions against ramping up too much, too soon; preferring that I allow my heel to adjust to each level before adding more stress to it. At this point, I'm patient enough to do that. I shared with him that I have finally gotten to the final stage of grief: acceptance. When I first visited him, he said I may not be the type of runner who can knock out 2 or more marathons (or ultras) per year, and that I may have to incorporate cross-training more than I did last year (nearly zero). When I heard those words, I was still in the early stages of grief (denial) and inwardly flinched. Now...hey, that's cool. If I can put in a lot of running miles again someday, great. If not, hello bicycle and (ugh) pool, along with the running shoes (and probably hiking boots). I'd rather run a little for the rest of my life than run a LOT for a year or two, then get sidelined with a major injury.

Now, on to another relevant event in today's running news: the 115th Boston Marathon. Holy smokes, did those guys & gals tear up the course, or what! Yes, the weather was great. Yes, there was a tail wind...but hey, a 2:03:02 is still a 2:03:02. Kudos to the winners (Geoffrey Mutai & Caroline Kilel, both from...you guessed it, Kenya), and to Ryan Hall (4th, 2:04:58, AR), Desiree Davila (2nd, 2:22:38) and Kara Goucher (5th, 2:24:52, new mom). Way to rock it for the U.S. One of these days, we're going to win this race again!

Congrats also to many of you who ran Boston today. I won't try to list everyone, but I saw via Twitter that many of you had some amazing times, too.