Four more races and nearly 50 kilometres to go

Ready to go at the St. Catharines Roadrunners Valentine's Day 5km Run

I sometimes worry I sound defeatist on this blog. Or, at the very least, hapless when it comes to running or staying injury free.

So today was my last five-kilometre race in my Running for the Cats (and dogs) series. I feel unfazed by that distance. I should. I'm training for a half-marathon for goodness' sake. I ran today's race, head first into a wind that felt like a wall and made me feel like Bob Seger (Still running against the wind — c'mon sing it with me — or like a rock at times, too). My time was 31:28 and I came in 56th out of 78 runners. Not stellar by far. But there's not much I can do about that now.

Speaking of now, my biggest gripe at this moment is the pain in my hip. I don't know what I did but it hurts. I've been hopping, hobbling, limping and, at times, crawling around since crossing the finish line. Am I getting old? Am I not meant to run? What the heck did I do? Why don't the running gods smile upon me?

I felt a twinge a few weeks ago when going for a jog in my neighbourhood. I covered 6.5 kilometres and felt great, save for the slight tension in my right hip. I chalked it up to having run without my grippers on my shoes, leaving me to tense up when running along unshovelled stretches of sidewalk.

Though there were patches where those grippers would have come in handy today, I didn't feel tense at all. I had good footing throughout and pounded that pavement through Port Dalhousie as though it was a summer's day.

But alas, here I am, coated in Voltaren, hopped up on advil and still in pain.

I felt like I was going to hurl, to be honest. I tried sprinting into the wind
in the final stretch. 

On that note, I did collect another $15 at the race thanks to my friend Wayne taking on the role of head fundraiser today. I think I need to hire him and Mollie on full time.

Meanwhile, I'm resting up my achey joint and looking forward to heading out Tuesday with my running clinic.

Next up, the Shamrock Run in Buffalo on March 5. Wish me and my old joints luck.